Suna's Fire Fox
by 11-Tailed Demon Wolf
Summary: After the second time failing the academy exam, Naruto had enough. A simple tantrum gone wrong, Naruto finds himself overwhelmed by the power he didn't know he had. He hunted down the Hokage and had a simple, yet life-changing, conversation with the man.
1. Chapter 1

I'm terribly sorry to everyone who enjoys this book. While, I have tried several times to start another chapter, I found that this is virtually impossible due to the horrible and cliché way that I wrote and conducted this story. I've decided on not only redo-ing this entire story. Some will be the same. Most will change drastically. I couldn't stomach trying to continue such a pathetic book as the one before this one. So without further ado…the new and improved…

**Suna's Fire Fox**

"Speaking"

"_Thoughts" _

_Flashbacks_

"**Demon/Summon speaking"**

"_**Demon/Summon thoughts"**_

**Jutsu name or Jutsu**

Disclaimer: I own nothing but a car.

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Naruto glared at the ramen in front of him. He didn't feel like eating much at the moment. Swirling the noodles in a circle, he couldn't help but sigh. Not even ramen could help this 12-year old boy feel any better about today.

Putting the correct amount of money on the counter to the Ichiraku Ramen Stand, he gave another sigh as he waved at Ayame-chan and the Old Man.

Walking in a direction that seemed quite random, but to the contrary Naruto knew exactly where he was going. The only training ground that Naruto preferred to train at. He didn't exactly know why he always went to this training field in particular but he just felt like it was the best one.

Upon arriving at his destination, Naruto scowled darkly at the three training posts across from him. They always seemed to mock him, standing so tall and straight all the time. It reminded him of some of the assholes back at the academy.

Naruto growled at the thought of those….those….those _pricks_! How could they fail him? Sure he couldn't do a regular bunshin and sure he was really bad at written exams, but how did he fail? He was pretty sure he had a high enough score to pass…

Naruto felt his chest and throat tightening. He knew the answer. He just didn't want to admit it. The teachers hated him, no they _loathed _him. He had no idea what he had done to upset them so much but he was pretty sure a few pranks here and there wasn't a good enough reason to fail him. It was something else. Something he couldn't think of, nor did he care about at the moment.

He wanted to, with all his might, just blow the entire place to hell. Feeling the anger, sadness, and other negative emotions build to the point where he couldn't take it anymore….Naruto screamed.

The night air was disrupted by his scream. He wanted to kill something, oh how angry he was! He wanted to look the teacher in the eyes and gut him like a pig. Naruto continued screaming, not allowing himself to breath. He felt his voice crack, and then a soreness took its place. He continued screaming, refusing to take a breath of air.

He felt white hot tears run down his face as he grabbed his head and screamed. A strange blurriness entered his vision. Naruto ignored it, and continued screaming. Then that sudden blurriness wavered into a pitch black nothingness. Naruto couldn't feel the impact of the ground.

A black hole. Everywhere there was black. A hole of nothingness.

This is what Naruto decided was the place he was currently in. He did not feel at peace, he still was very pissed. But he could feel a lightness about him. Almost like he was just floating in this sea of darkness.

Slowly Naruto felt his anger seep away, but he could feel the anger of someone else rise. It was foul, but Naruto felt like it was his anger, yet it wasn't his. He couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of fear from the anger that he deduced was in fact from him, but it did not belong to him.

The anger evolved into something much more frightening. Hatred, malice, bloodlust, and the intent to kill was directly focused on Naruto. The blonde haired boy was frozen, fear washing over his body. Freezing him. He couldn't move, nor did he want to. He tried to quiet his breathing, afraid that whatever was producing these emotion would find him. His efforts, he soon discovered, were futile.

Naruto's eyes widened, heart racing, hands sweaty, and his entire being shaking. Fear squeezed Naruto's mind, only allowing his primal instincts to take control over his body. The fight or flight response. Naruto didn't want to fight, he wanted to run. Run forever until this fear that gripped Naruto's heart, however Naruto couldn't bring himself to even move, let alone run.

Abruptly, it ended. Naruto gulped down huge breaths of air as he tried to take as much in as possible, attempting to slow down his heart beat. He looked around him and just then noticed a pair of blood red eyes. They were watching him. Something close to amusement.

He watched as they continued forward until they were very large, and in front of the orange clad boy. Naruto felt something akin to awe, but also felt the fear that he was experiencing earlier.

Those blood red eyes kept watching him as the darkness eased its way backwards, exposing a enormous fox head. It's fur was as red as it's eyes, and the feral grin on this monsters face was terrifying beyond any comprehension.

Naruto stared, unable to make a sound, or even move for that matter. He could feel the blackness heating up, it was almost unbearable. He couldn't take anymore! He shut his eyes, trying to concentrate on anything other than the heat forcing its way through his body.

"**Such a pathetic waste of space…"**

Naruto blinked and looked at the fox…had it just spoken to him? He couldn't help but feel a tad insulted though, at what the monster had said to him. He was about to say something, when the fox cut him off.

"**I advise you talk to your leader, bug. I want him to tell you everything. And I mean everything. You WILL say that to him…"**

Naruto nodded dumbly, unable to understand just what was going on. The crimson eyes of the fox narrowed and a claw shot forward and pierced Naruto, right in the chest.

Naruto's eyes widened, feeling the blood pool in his mouth. A mind numbing pain washed over him, as he could feel the fox start to pump its chakra into his system. The pain flared to an impossible level as Naruto released a blood curdling scream.

With a sickening noise, the fox removed it's claw from Naruto's chest. Naruto looked down, expecting a gaping wound, but all he saw was his bare chest. He felt sore, and so very tired. He was in fact so tired that he almost missed what the fox had said after that.

"**Use that power that I have given you, bug. And no, this is not a dream, you'll see when you wake up."** The fox chuckled quite darkly, **"But for now. Tell your leader…."**

Naruto felt another ripple of fear shoot threw him as the fox's mouth slowly drew back into a bloodthirsty grin.

"**Tell him, that the Kyuubi no Kitsune will be back one day. And I will finish the job next time."**

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Naruto sat up right, and immediately regretted it. Groaning, he clutched his head as he forced himself to stand up, despite the unusual soreness in his body and chest.

Whatever he had just experienced…it wasn't a dream, or a nightmare. It was to vivid, to painful, to memorable….to _real_. Naruto started walking towards the one place he knew he had to go. And by the ramen gods, he was going to get some answers from the old coot.

Naruto ran to the Hokage tower, feeling strangely different. He didn't have to avoid crowded areas this time, due to the fact that it was very late and normal people would be sleeping. Naruto knew that Hokage-oji-san would be still awake at this time of the day.

Back when Naruto was younger, he always would visit Oji-san if he had a nightmare or if he had a feeling that something was wrong with his apartment or to simply just be good company to the man.

Naruto loved the night. He felt so awake, so rejuvenated just by seeing the moon. He knew he wasn't a morning person, but that was probably because Naruto stayed out until 2 or possibly 3 every morning. He just preferred it better.

Running past the hidden ANBU that he knew were guarding the door, he continued his jog up the stairs. He wanted to get to the Hokage as quickly as possible.

Naruto stopped at the door of the office he knew the old man would be in, doing paperwork. Naruto shook his head, regaining his breath. He always felt sorry for Oji-san. He never seemed to ever be rid of that damn paperwork. When he became the Hokage, he was going to make a law that all paperwork for the Hokage, was to be sent to his/her secretary to deal with.

Naruto stood up straight after catching his breath and opened the door to the office he was so familiar too. He knew that probably only him and a handful of other people would be allowed to get away with this.

"Oi! Oji-san! I need to talk to you!"

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Sarutobi Hiruzen was considered a genius among geniuses. He deserved his title of 'The Professor' of Konohagakure and had rightfully earned the title of Sandaime Hokage.

Secrets were never kept from the old, but definitely not fragile, man. However, he had sported a great deal of secrets himself. He had too. To protect the village from vital information that could possibly be the downfall of this village is his job. And he was very good at his job. Thus, the reason why he had kept secrets from people.

However…

There was one secret that would elude his possession until the day he died. He would never find out how to conquer such a foe as the one this secret entailed. He would always be struggling to keep the balance of power between him and his accursed enemy.

He would never be able to put a dent into this paperwork.

He was tempted to just light the whole stack of paperwork on fire and say it was an accident. However, he had tried everything to rid himself of this said paper work. And he occasionally was allowed a break from the clutches of his most hated enemy.

He would always find little ways to entertain himself while he worked. He would also take occasional breaks to have a smoke from his pipe, or to walk the village and be social.

He would most definitely say, however, that his most favorite form of distraction from the accursed paperwork would come from the form of a blonde-haired blue-eyed orange wearing academy student.

Uzumaki Naruto was definitely not like any other person he had met. The boy himself seemed to have attached to his side. Sarutobi didn't mind it of course because he thought of that child like a grandson to him.

Naruto was one of the only people that could barge into his office, call him 'Oji-san' and not face the wrath of 'The Professor'. He loved the boy to death.

Sarutobi chuckled, thinking of the boy. The boy had the most unusual sleeping regime he had ever seen in a young child. Naruto was unaffected by staying up late, though he knew that Naruto hated being woke up when the sun was shining.

Hiruzen would often stay up late with Naruto, not doing any paper work, just to talk with the boy. He usually came into his office at night either when he had a nightmare and he couldn't go back to sleep anymore. Which Hiruzen highly doubted seeing that Naruto would never go to bed before 1 A.M. in the morning. Another reason why Naruto would visit him was because he claimed that the apartment the Sandaime had bought him, quote 'felt different and made me not want to go inside'.

The old Hokage and abruptly sent some ANBU to check out the apartment, and indeed the home had been trapped for when Naruto came home, in an attempt to kill the child.

Hiruzen merely ruffled Naruto's hair and congratulated him on having such a superb instinct. The image of Naruto's bright grin made him chuckle slightly.

Of course, the third and final reason why Naruto would visit him at such a late time of the night, was to just talk to him. He figured Naruto didn't want to come in during the day because of how many people would just tell him to stop wasting the time of the Hokage.

He actually liked Naruto coming in during the night to talk to him better then if he came in during the day. This way, he could truly focus on the child he considered a grandson and would be able to actually talk to him comfortably, without eyes watching his every move. He assumed Naruto felt the exact same way.

Hiruzen could almost sense what day Naruto would come in and have a nice chit chat with him, and he put it to very good use.

But there was a feeling in his stomach that Naruto would come in and talk with him tonight, and he knew it had something to do with the enormous chakra burst that he had felt earlier on.

It surprised him at first and he ordered his ANBU to check it out, wishing desperately that he could go. He sighed, something about today just didn't feel right. And that feeling started right when he woke up this morning.

Sarutobi expected Uzumaki Naruto to come into his office this early morning, and he expected that the discussion that would take place soon after that would be of utmost importance.

Which is why he wasn't surprised to see his door almost fly off it's hinges when Naruto stepped inside his office, knowing it was Naruto who kicked his door in. And he also wasn't surprised when Naruto gave him a frightened glare mixed with a serious look.

"Oi! Oji-san! I need to talk to you!"

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Naruto glared at the old man sitting calmly in front of him. Sandaime stood up and smiled at Naruto.

"Ah, Naruto-kun. I was expecting you. Please have a seat."

Naruto made his way to the sofa at the side of the room. He plopped down in the comfy cushions and watched Sarutobi pull out a chair and place it on the ground opposite of Naruto. He joined Naruto in sitting. The Sandaime smiled at Naruto and took a drag from his pipe.

"So, Naruto-kun. What did you need to talk to me about?"

Naruto sat forward, almost excited to get this information out, but he hesitated. How should he start? Naruto frowned thinking then slowly he started to speak.

"You…you know about me failing the academy exam today….right?"

Sarutobi nodded, a kind look on his face. "Of course."

Naruto waved a hand, "It was a fluke I tell you, those bastards at the academy have something against me and they failed me just becau - well never mind about that. But after the exam I went to a training ground and I was standing there screaming! And all of a sudden-"

The Hokage held up a hand, trying to make sense of blabbing Naruto was saying. "Hold on… you were at a training field…screaming?"

Naruto nodded, annoyed that he was interrupted. "Yeah! I was mad, so I released my anger. But anyway! As I was saying, before I was interrupted-" He sent the Hokage a glare, "All of a sudden, I pass out! I don't know how but I just fell over and I was gone. But then I wake up and I'm floating in a black hole or something. And this huge fox came out of nowhere!"

Sarutobi's eyes darkened, He knew what Naruto was talking about and it seemed that he had contacted the Kyuubi years before the Yondaime expected him too.

"It started talking to me, It told me to ask you to tell me everything. Then, then! It stabbed my chest with it's claw! It hurt so much and then it forced it's chakra into me! After that it looked pulled its huge claw out of my chest and told me to use the power it gave me, whatever that means. And then it said to tell you…."

Naruto hesitated, this next part confused him beyond all of the other things that happened.

"It said," Naruto started, "That the Kyuubi no Kitsune will be back and it will finish the job."

Silence fell over the room as Naruto finished his hurried speech. He waited for the Hokage to speak. Sarutobi took a drag out of his pipe, a worried frown on his face. Finally after a long silence, Hiruzen let out a sigh and leaned backwards.

For the first time ever, Naruto saw the true age of the Sandaime Hokage. The lines in his face from wrinkles seemed to make him look much older than what Naruto ever thought he was.

He sighed, "You've heard the story about that night 12 years ago….correct?"

Naruto nodded. "Yeah, the greatest Hokage ever, the Yondaime, killed Kyuubi no Kitsune. But why then did I have that dream about it?"

Sarutobi gave Naruto a serious look. "It is true that the Yondaime had defeated the Kyuubi. But he did not kill it."

Naruto furrowed his eyebrows, completely lost. "Is there a difference?"

Nodding, Hiruzen took another drag of his pipe. "The Yondaime was the considered the strongest man in the world. But Kyuubi was the strongest demon in the world. Nothing can kill it. And the Yondaime knew that, from the very moment that thing attacked our village. Now, Naruto. How do you get rid of an immortal being that can't be killed?"

Naruto shrugged, "I dunno."

Sarutobi sighed, "You lock it up. Put it in a place that a demon couldn't escape. The easiest answer to this choice of strategy is to seal the Kyuubi away."

"Seal it away? How?"

Waving his hand he dismissed Naruto's question. "Yes, seal it away. And it's a very complicated process that doesn't have any relativity to this topic at the moment. Now, there is a trick to sealing a demon with such power away. It must be sealed away inside a human."

Naruto's eyes widened, "A human?"

"Yes," the Sandaime continued. "A human. However, it had to be a child. No older than a week old."

Naruto shook his head, not understanding anything that was going on. "But why a kid?"

Nodding in approval at the question, Sarutobi replied. "A child between the ages of 1 day old and 1 week old do not have chakra coils developed. They start developing on their own about two to three weeks after birth. Any person that had the Kyuubi placed inside of them after that age would have had their chakra system completely destroyed and in turn would have killed that human. Then the Kyuubi would have been able to break out of its fleshy cage."

Naruto looked worried. He was starting to connect the dots a little bit, but he still needed a couple more answers.

"Then what?"

Hiruzen leaned forward and stared at Naruto with the most intent look he had seen all night.

"Naruto. When were you born?"

Gulping down a lump in his throat, and trying to ignore the feeling of dread in his stomach, Naruto weakly answered. "October 10th."

"Naruto. When did the Kyuubi attack Konoha?"

Naruto knew it. He just didn't want to admit it. He wasn't the most colorful crayon in the box, but sure the hell wasn't the dullest.

"October 10th."

Nodding to the orange clad boy, Sarutobi leaned back once more. "No other children were born that night. And a one day old child was the most preferred child to use for the sealing process."

Naruto felt so many emotions at the moment, he believed that he could explode. He hung his head.

Sarutobi stood up and sat down next to Naruto. He put his arm around the boy, comforting him. Naruto leaned in. He wouldn't cry. He promised himself years ago that he won't cry anymore. But the pain he felt inside was just too much. He had so many more questions, yet he just received so many answers right now also.

He looked up at the man he considered a grandfather. "What am I?"

"Naruto-kun. You are a boy, carrying a terrible burden. Something that should not have to be given to anyone…" He hesitated, "You…you are what they call, a Jinchuriki."

Naruto nodded sadly, accepting the answer. Too emotionally tired to really have any kind of reaction. "What now?"

Sarutobi raised an eyebrow at that question. He thought a little bit. "Well…I suppose now I should assign someone to train you."

Naruto blinked, "Train me?"

"Yes, now that the Kyuubi as been in contact with you and apparently he has given you some sort of 'power' it's only natural that I would have you be trained right away."

He grinned, and gave a fist pump. "Hell yeah! Only one more step closer to my goal!"

He chuckled, and scratched the back of his neck. Sarutobi smiled, wondering just what the power the Kyuubi gave Naruto. Naruto seemed no different than before, other than his hair being even more wild and untamed, but Sarutobi figured that was from the rough day he had.

"Naruto-kun, it's getting late. You should probably go back to your apartment. Tomorrow right when you wake up, gather your belongings and bring them to my office. I know the perfect man to teach you."

He listened to Naruto jump up and down, all the while grinning and laughing. Sarutobi chuckled it was about time Naruto got what he deserved.

He looked over at Naruto, just in time to see him give a big yawn. Sarutobi smiled fondly, the boy did need some rest. After what he's been threw. Naruto looked at the Sandaime and yawned again.

"Hey! Hey, Oji-san. Did you know what yawning is contagious?"

Smiling, "Yes Naruto-kun. I did know."

He held out his hand for Naruto to grab hold off, "Take my hand Naruto-kun and I'll take us to your apartment."

Naruto grabbed on, and in a poof of smoke, the two of them disappeared, only to reappear outside of Naruto's apartment door.

Naruto grinned at him, "Thanks Oji-san!" He took out the key for his lock and unlocked his door. When he turned the knob to enter, he stopped and looked back at the Hokage with a mischievous look on his face.

"Hey, Oji-san…"

"Yes, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto yawned, obviously fake. "Did you know hearing the word yawn and seeing someone yawn makes you want to yawn? Yawn. Yawn. Yawn. Yawn. Yawn. Yawn. Yawn. Yawn. Yawn. Yawn. Yawn. Yawn. Yawn. Yawn."

Naruto entered his apartment with that as his farewell. Sarutobi chuckled and walked down the stairs of the apartment. Thinking about the sensei he wants for Naruto. He already knew who was going to train him. It was just a matter of how assertive he had to be to get him to accept.

He sighed, as he walked back to the Hokage tower, enjoying the stroll. He looked around at the streets and realized that not a single person was out. It must have been later than he thought it was. Yawning, Sarutobi thought about hitting the sack. But then he realized something as he finished his big yawn.

He narrowed his eyes as he felt another yawn rise up inside of him.

Damn that boy.

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Naruto woke up, feeling oddly a little bit sore. He turned over to his belly and thrust his head in the pillow. Attempting to five more minutes of rest, but his body had said to him that he slept long enough and refused to go back to sleep.

Naruto groaned as he sat up, eyes closed. He sleepily hobbled to the bathroom to start his daily routine. He walked inside, not bothering to close the door behind him and walked to the toilet.

After relieving himself, he clumsily walked to the kitchen. He put water in his teapot and set it on his stove. Lighting a match, he allowed the propane gas to catch fire, then he placed the teapot over the flames.

He went to a nearby cupboard, opened it and blindly reached in for the first cup of ramen his hand bumped against. Naruto opened his eyes to see what kind he grabbed today.

Miso ramen, Naruto grinned. "It's going to be a good day if I start off with miso ramen for breakfast."

He opened the package and waited for his water to start screaming. With a little bit of patience, Naruto was rewarded with that sound. He took the pot off the stove and poured himself his ramen, still not quite awake.

Waiting a god awful three minutes for his ramen to cook, he opened the lid, broke apart his chopsticks and with a quick word of 'Itadakimasu!' he almost literally dove into his ramen.

Finishing his breakfast, he threw away the chopsticks and ramen cup and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. He walked towards his bedroom and passed the bathroom. He stopped, and looked at the bathroom entrance with squinted eyes.

"_To bathe, or not to bathe…"_ Naruto thought. A few seconds later Naruto sniffed his armpits, blinked and shrugged. _"I smell okay. No shower for today!"_

Naruto reentered his bedroom and stripped himself of all his clothing and put on an identical orange jumpsuit. He placed his goggles on his head and grabbed his backpack. Stuffing all of his clothes into that back pack, he looked at the rest of his room for any small items that had a great deal of value to him.

Sadly, there wasn't a single thing that he could think of. He was half tempted to bring his ramen, but he decided against it. Grabbing his key, Naruto left his apartment and locked the door behind him. He grinned and adjusted his goggles on his forehead.

He took a deep breath of air. Enjoying the smell, Naruto continued grinning. "What a wonderful day! A perfect day for the future Hokage to take a stroll in! Believe it!"

"Ah, shut up, you little brat!"

Naruto glared and stuck his tongue out at the passerby who had shouted at him. Future Hokage's didn't need that kind of unnecessary back talk from civilians.

With a cheery and bright attitude, Naruto took off towards the Hokage tower.

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Naruto entered Sarutobi's office, not even bothering to glance at the secretary. He knew that the old man would see him no matter what he was doing.

Sandaime looked up from the pile of paperwork he was working on. He smiled warmly at Naruto.

"Ah, Naruto-kun. You arrived."

Naruto grinned. "I wouldn't miss it for the world, Oji-san."

Chuckling the Hokage stood up, "If you would, Naruto-kun, follow me to your new sensei's house. This place is a short walk, but you'll be living there for a while."

Naruto nodded, excitedly. "So, Oji-san! Is this guy, like, super strong? Can he teach me lots of really cool and strong jutsu? What does he look like?"

Chuckling, the Sandaime ruffled Naruto's hair, "You will see soon enough, little one."

Naruto scowled and crossed his arms mumbling something about 'not being little'. Sarutobi smiled fondly.

For a couple minutes there was nothing but silence as Sarutobi walked towards Naruto's future sensei's house. Within minutes they were on the top of the Hokage Monument. With in a few more minutes they were walking in a forest, heading towards the small mountains behind Konoha.

Naruto was extremely bored with the silence and the slow pace of walk that the Sandaime set. He put his hands behind his head, not paying any attention what so ever to where they were going. It wasn't a long time before Naruto blinked as they stopped walking.

"Oi, Oji-san. Why did we stop walk-"

"We're here Naruto-kun."

Naruto blinked in confusion. "Uh, Oji-san. I don't know if your age is catching up to you or anything. But this is a freaking stone wall in the side of the mountain!" Naruto was scowling.

Indeed, just as Naruto said, in front of the two of them was a enormous wall of smooth stone. In the middle of this stone was a very small seal.

Sarutobi chuckled, "Just watch, Naruto-kun. After all, your sensei is a very secretive man."

Doing a set of hand seals, too fast for Naruto to see, the Sandaime finished and gently placed his hand on the stone, pouring chakra into it. Naruto blinked and jumped as a perfect circle came out of the stone wall and extended past the rest of the stone by a little over two inches.

Sarutobi gripped the ball and poured a small amount of chakra into it. Almost in acceptance of the chakra, the circle retreated back into the stone wall and an entrance shimmered to life. It was big enough to allow two people too walk side by side together in. but it wasn't that tall.

Mouth falling down at such a display of awesomeness, he dumbly followed Sarutobi inside. A bright natural light coming from the entrance that was blocked out by the forest a moment ago, where Naruto was standing.

Naruto felt his whole jaw drop at the sight in front of him.

In an almost ring like fashion, the mountains, shielded and protected the hidden valley in the center. A pond and a river flowed through a very small section of the valley, water being supplied by 20 foot waterfalls scattered around the edge of the pond. Giant trees were scarcely scattered around, only a big group of them were focused near the right of this entrance, leaving the rest of the valley an ocean of green grass. Except for two cherry blossom trees that surround a house, which was built into the mountain, at the very far end of the only entrance to the valley.

Naruto watched birds fly around, and couldn't help but feel a peace he's never felt before at such a beautiful area. Sarutobi, himself, smiled at how wonderful this place was. He waved his hand towards Naruto, a gesture for him to follow the old Hokage.

Naruto nodded and trailed Sarutobi like a lost puppy, trying to take in the valley. With in a couple minutes, they were at the entrance of the house. Sarutobi, just to be polite, knocked three times on the door and waited patiently.

Naruto blinked when the door opened and he looked at the man, starting with his feet.

This guy had normal sandals, not shinobi sandals, but civilian sandals on calloused feet. His legs were covered with brown khaki pants. His torso was clothed in a black short sleeved t-shirt, nothing special about it. It hung loosely off of the obviously well built man. He hands and forearms were relaxed and not covered with any sort of item. The mans head, however seemed to be the only interesting thing about him.

Black, short, messy hair was blessed to him. It literally looked like the dude just rolled out of his covers. A tan face. Well shaved, but seemed to have a permanent 7 o'clock shadow. A thin pale scar under his left ear on his jaw line was the only skin flaw he possessed. Finally, curious, soft purple eyes finished off his facial features.

Overall an attractive, if not slightly boring dressed, man was what he was presented with.

Naruto stared at the man, not expecting someone to look like him.

Sarutobi smiled and gave a small bow to the man, which made Naruto's eyes almost pop out of their heads. The Hokage bowing to someone? Who's heard of that? Naruto shook his head.

"Long time, no see. Denkou-kun."

The man, identified as Denkou, blinked and his face split into a huge grin. "Saru-ji-san! Come inside!"

He ushered the two of them inside his beautiful house. Inside was very roomy, and borderline elegant. Walking inside the house, Naruto looked around, enjoying it. The room they first entered in was a simple foyer. Wooden floors, light green painted walls. Over all, warm and comforting. To the left of the room were carpeted stairs, heading up one floor.

To the right of the foyer, with an open arch-way was what seemed to be a room dedicated to the ninja way. Twin swords were hanging on display. A couch and a couple matching chairs were set evenly between what seemed to be a glass coffee table. Book shelves were filled with scrolls, books, and notebooks all around the room. Also hanging on the walls were various shinobi weapons such as shuriken, or kunai, and one fuma shuriken.

Naruto took this all in, in less than 30 seconds, staring in amazement. These rooms were the size of his apartment and they only visited the three rooms at the moment.

Denkou led them into the kitchen, which Naruto studied also. The kitchen broke off into two different areas. One was the actual kitchen area. It was large. Wooden floors and black marble counter tops. Cabinets above the counter tops and with every kitchen appliance also being black. An island was in the middle of the kitchen, creating even more counter top room for the already large space.

The next area of the kitchen was a simple wooden dining table. It fit six people. A ceiling light and ceiling fan was hanging over the kitchen. On the wall was large mirror, and underneath that was a wooden buffet cabinet, with several different items scattered across it. In this area of the kitchen were four doors and one open archway into another room. Both areas of the kitchen were topped off with white walls and a maroon-ish color to the ceiling.

Two of those doors were open and the other two closed. Naruto didn't know what was in those closed doors, but he definitely checked out the other two rooms. One was a small bathroom, but was able to fit a single sink, with a cabinet underneath it, and a mirror above it, a toilette next to that and a bathtub/shower to the other side of the toilette. The empty space in there was covered by a rug and could fit four or five people standing next to each other. A dark yellow almost golden color was what the walls were painted.

The next open room was very simple. A dark green carpet with the same gold/dark yellow color. There was a sliding closet which Naruto saw was open and had a very large variety of shoes inside of it, along with different coats. And an open window.

The room with the open arch way was very cozy seeming. Cream colored carpet, with cream walls and a white ceiling. A sofa, a love seat and a king's chair were backed up into the walls. While the kings chair was in a corner. Side tables were in between the sofas/kings chair/love seat. A fire place was next to the love seat. It was built into the wall and had white brick surrounding it in a fashionable way. On the final wall was a huge cabinet, with a T.V. built into it. It was wooden but one of the side doors to the cabinet had Plexiglas on it. Naruto could see what was inside and he noticed that it was filled with nothing but DVD's.

Naruto shook his head. Holy mother, this place was huge! But he noticed that it was definitely not the same style as it would be for the traditional Japanese folk to have. It was westernized, he could tell by that much.

Naruto was doing this while Denkou and Sarutobi were making small talk. Denkou led them to the his kitchen table, and gestured for them to sit down, smiling the whole time.

Naruto took the seat and put his hands on the table. Sarutobi did the same thing, smiling warmly at Denkou.

Denkou walked to the other part of the kitchen, "Can I get you two anything? Tea? Coffee?"

Naruto looked at Sarutobi, who nodded. "Tea would be fine, Denkou-kun."

Naruto scratched his cheek as the black haired man looked at him questioningly. "Er…what he said."

Nodding Denkou set to work, getting out cups, the tea leaves, and putting water into his teapot. He walked over to the two and sat down at the head of the table, leaning back.

"So, what brings you to my humble abode, Saru-ji-san? You know I don't mind the company, but you usually only come alone and when you bring someone…" He trailed off, looking over to Naruto, studying his features and his eyes. Naruto noticed his eyes were bored looking but alert and a hint of curiosity.

Sarutobi smiled, "Well, Actually, I have a mission for you."

Dropping his care free attitude, Denkou shot Sarutobi a dark stare. "The last mission I got was very difficult. I'm actually surprised I survived… of course that was 5 years ago…why now?"

Sarutobi, feeling Denkou's tension, smiled reassuringly. "It's just as difficult, but not nearly as dangerous…I hope."

Denkou glanced at Naruto again, which Naruto didn't notice. Running his tongue over his teeth without opening his mouth, he gave Sarutobi a stoney stare.

"What do you want?"

"I need you to train this boy here."

No facial expression showed on his face. He looked back at Naruto, who was scowling, then back at Sarutobi. He narrowed his eyes dangerously, and whispered quietly.

"Get out."

Sarutobi saw the delicacy of this situation and leaned forward just as quiet, as if trying to keep Naruto from hearing what he said. "Denkou, you have to train him. You're the only one who _can_ train him, and the only one who can train him _correctly_."

Standing up, Denkou glared down at the Sandaime. "I said get out."

Standing up to meet his challenge, a hard cold look on his face, Hiruzen meet his eye. "You have no choice in the matter, Denkou. You can either say yes, and willingly train him. Or I'll have to appoint this as one of the 25 missions that we agreed to at the end of your career."

Naruto's eyes widened, he stood up. "Wait a second," he turned towards the Hokage, "You want me to be trained by someone who isn't even a shinobi? What the hell?"

Both of the older men completely ignored Naruto, who bristled. He did not like to be ignored.

A snarl escaped Denkou's mouth, "You dare?"

Sarutobi kept the look, "Yes. I dare."

Silence fell over the room, except for the teapot which was quietly brewing its tea.

Denkou kept his gaze solely on the Sandaime. Skeptical and infuriated, Denkou knew he needed to question what the Sandaime was saying. Though, for as long as he knew the Hokage, the man wasn't going to change his mind.

"Why him? I've heard of much more talented shinobi that you never gave to me to train."

Sighing, the Sandaime looked at Naruto and then back at Denkou.

"Because he's the future Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato. Because he has the blondest hair and the bluest eyes. Because, for Kami's sake, the boy wears orange! Because he has whisker marks. Because he has a determination that I have never seen in anybody before. Because… he has the Kyuubi locked up inside him."

Being called the Professor for almost all of his life, Sarutobi knew that while what he said was just plain confusing for Naruto. However, it would work wonders on Denkou, who was dropped his cold attitude and was sporting one of complete shock.

"The…the Kyuubi?"

He turned towards Naruto for the first time since the beginning of the intense conversation. Violet eyes met blue eyes as Naruto felt the man bore into his soul itself. He squirmed under such a scrutinizing gaze.

Sarutobi put a hand on Denkou's shoulder making, the man tense slightly, but never take his eyes off of Naruto's. "Denkou…The boy is like a grandson to me. And I can vouch for him myself, that he is like no other person you have ever met."

Denkou relaxed and stared at Naruto, sizing him up. Naruto gulped.

"What's your name, boy?"

Brightening, Naruto jerked his thumb at his own chest, grinning. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto!"

Denkou raised an eyebrow. "Naruto…huh? Has anyone ever told you….that you look like the Yondaime?"

Naruto blinked, surprised by the statement. As did the Sandaime. Come to think of it… Naruto grinned, "Well, no. People usually don't even talk to me. But I guess I do, don't I? Hehe, that just proves how awesome I am."

He leaned back on one foot and put his hands behind his head grinning.

Denkou felt his lip twitch upward in amusement. He glanced at Sarutobi. "So…you want me to train him."

"Yes."

"For how long?" Denkou smirked at Sarutobi, knowing the old coot would know that he accepted Naruto as a student. Sarutobi smiled, and visibly let out a breath he was holding.

"Two years."

He raised an eyebrow, "Two years? Why two years?"

Naruto jumped in this time, "So I can be strong enough to become a genin!"

Blinking, surprised was a tad bit of an understatement. "You…aren't a ninja yet?"

Naruto shook his head, but growled slightly at the insult he thought was in that sentence, "Nope! You gotta problem with that?"

Denkou chuckled, "Actually…No. You're a clean slate. That means I can train you to be, well, anything I want you to be."

He glanced at Sarutobi, "Details?"

He waved off Denkou, "I've prepared you a scroll with all the information that you need to train him. I've probably been gone long enough from the office and I need to get back soon."

They all started walking towards the front door, tea pot screaming its head off. Denkou created a clone without the other two noticing and had it attend to the tea. Once outside, Denkou and Sarutobi watched as Naruto took off, running to the middle of the field screaming about how he had a sensei, and how he was going to be so strong. They both smiled fondly at him.

Sarutobi glanced at Denkou, "What are you planning on doing with him?"

Denkou smiled at him, "You said he was the future Hokage?"

Nodding Sarutobi smirked, almost fondly. "That's his dream… Why?"

"Because I'll train this boy to be the best damn Kage anyone's ever seen."

Surprised at the answer, Sarutobi shook Denkou's hand. Which in return, Tenzou gave Sarutobi a huge smile. Naruto ran up to both of them, grinning.

"I can't wait to tell the other kids! I'll brag to that bastard Sasuke about getting so strong and then Sakura-chan will definitely love me!"

The men blinked, Denkou because of what he said, and Sarutobi because he just realized something.

"Naruto…" Sarutobi started, trying to seek the best way of telling him. "You won't be seeing the other kids for a long time…"

Naruto stared, "Huh? What do you mean!"

"Well. You're living here, with Denkou-kun, for the two years that you're training with him."

Denkou expected the fact that Naruto would live with him, but Naruto didn't seem to even have thought of that.

"WHAT?"

Chuckling Sarutobi answered, "That's why I told you to bring all your belongings. Surely you didn't think that you, alone, would be able to walk back and forth every day…"

Naruto bristled, "I could do it."

Chuckling, Denkou added his two cents. "Naruto. With the way I'm going to be training you, walking to this house is going to be impossible for you. You'd never make it back to the village."

Naruto scowled at the thought of not having Ichiraku ramen for two years. Which he voiced his thoughts. They both laughed out loud.

"Just because you're living here Naruto-kun, doesn't mean you won't visit the village." Sarutobi said, chuckling.

"Oh." Naruto could only think of that one sentence to say.

Chuckling, Sarutobi turned towards Denkou, shaking his hand. "I'll be back whenever I can to check up on him."

Nodding, Denkou answered. "Of course, I wouldn't expect anything less than that."

Ruffling Naruto's hair, Sarutobi exited the valley that belonged to Denkou and now, Naruto. Silence filled the air, both unsure of how to interact with each other now that their only link was gone.

Coughing slightly, Denkou handed Naruto a cup of tea, out of nowhere. "Go sit down in the grass over there and we'll begin our first lesson."

Naruto blinked, as he took the tea. "How did you…"

Denkou waved his hand, ignoring Naruto's obvious thoughts. "I said go! Geez, you gotta listen better kid."

Naruto hurried to the grass, and sat down. Not wanting to be kicked out of training on the first day. Denkou appeared in front of him a second later, which made Naruto look at him in awe, then the boy got giddy in excitement about getting trained by him. Denkou smirked.

With his own cup of tea, Denkou took a sip of it, and looked at Naruto.

"Okay…it's been a while since I've trained anyone, so I apologize ahead of time for my rustiness. But first lesson today is to just get to know each other. And maybe later on, I'll give you a real lesson."

Naruto grinned brightly at the thought of talking about himself. He took a sip of his tea, and blinked. The boy wasn't really a big fan of tea but damn! This stuff was really good. He set the cup down on the grass. And leaned back on his hands.

"What'dya mean?"

Denkou took another sip of is tea, before setting it down. He shrugged. "Tell me everything you feel necessary to tell me. Anything and everything."

Naruto thought for a moment, then slowly started talking about himself. "I'm Uzumaki Naruto…I uh, live by myself in the slums of Konoha. I'm an only child I think, and I don't know who my parents are, but Oji-san said they died when the Kyuubi attacked. I am a…." he hesitated, simply because he was beginning to hate this word. "a Jinchuriki. I hate that same word too.

"I live on the money that Oji-san gives me every month. I'm not allowed in any public areas because they all hate me there. Orange is the best color in the world, and ramen in the greatest food in the world. Which is what I live off of." He said that with a grin.

"Miso ramen is the best flavor! Beef ramen is a close second though. Uhhhh, I have a few hobbies. Nothing big, but I love to prank people. It's fun to see their reaction and then everyone knows that it was me who did it! My other hobbies are trying new flavors of ramen and a little bit of training. Although I consider pranking as training because it hones my stealth skills.

"I hate rain, and I mean I absolutely hate it! I don't know why…erm, I hate mornings. And I love staying up late. I love the moon. And the darkness and everything about it! I suck at learning things from a classroom and I feel that I'm more of a physical learner instead.

"I hate Uchiha Sasuke and I think Haruno Sakura is the greatest and the most perfect girl for me! In the entire world!" At this Denkou chuckled, Naruto continued. "My dream….my dream is to be the greatest Hokage the world has ever seen! And make the village respect and acknowledge me!"

Denkou smiled, "A valiant dream for one so young. Is that all?"

Thinking, Naruto nodded, "Yeah!"

He nodded his head, accepting the introduction. "That was good. So I guess it's my turn huh? Um. My name is Murasaki Denkou. I was born and raised in Konoha. I am 36 years old. I graduated the academy when I was 14. I was placed on a team with Hyuga Hiashi and, as you know him by, Kazama Arashi."

Naruto's eyes widened, he pointed at Denkou. "You were on a team with the Yondaime?"

Nodding his head in slight annoyance at being interrupted, he continued talking. "Yes, I was. But his real name wasn't Kazama Arashi. It was Namikaze Minato. The name everyone knows about his a false name. He created it after the 3rd Great Shinobi War to hide his real name from enemies to protect his family and friends.

"Now back to me. My parents died when I was very young. I don't remember them. I too am an only child. I became a chunin when I was still only 14. Then two years later, I became a jonin. Minato was my best friend. We both trained under Jiraiya, the Sannin, and every technique we knew we shared with each other. After I became a Jonin I took on an apprentice. After a while I went to Saru-ji-san and quit being a shinobi.

"I moved out here about 14 years ago and started a new life as a civilian. It wasn't as hard as I thought it'd be due to the fact that I had enough money to last me two lifetimes and I'm alone and secluded. I, unlike you, love the rain and relish in it. I love the color purple. I don't have any pets. And my hobbies used to only be training. But now they are cooking, training, gardening, and inventing new jutsu.

"I never really had a dream. But now I guess my dream is to help you become one of the most powerful ninja in the world." He finished with a smirk at Naruto.

He gulped down the rest of his tea, and looked at Naruto bored. "Any questions?"

Naruto grinned, "Yeah! What kind of name is 'Purple Lightning'?"

Denkou's eye twitched, "What kind of name is 'Swirling Fishcake'?"

Naruto bristled, and got up pointing at Denkou, "The greatest name! That's what!"

Denkou glared at Naruto, "Are you saying your name is better than mine…?"

Naruto stuck his tongue out. "Yours and every other asshole's name!"

Denkou stood up also, "Are you calling me an asshole!"

"Yes!"

"That's a great way to start your first lesson off with your sensei!"

"So!"

Denkou puffed his chest out, "So! You know what that means?"

Naruto puffed his chest out too, "What?"

Suddenly, all of Denkou's anger vanished replaced with a huge grin. "I like you brat."

Blinking Naruto was very confused. Chuckling. Denkou picked up both of the empty tea cups, created a clone, and the clone took the cups inside. Naruto felt his jaw drop at such a cool jutsu. Denkou smirked and grabbed Naruto by the shoulders.

"Naruto. We have a big journey in head of us. And to start off knowing where you're at with your abilities. I want you, right now, to spar with me."

Scratching the back of his head he squinted, "Spar with you?"

Rolling his eyes he straightened himself. "Yes, you know…fight me. Yatta yatta yatta. Try to kill me."

Naruto scowled, "Try to kill you?"

Snorting Denkou crossed his arms. "What are you? A freaking parrot? Yes, do just as I say you little twirp."

Naruto grinned and jumped forward with a war cry, fist back, ready to punch him in the face. Denkou blinked, unexpected of the sudden attack. The obviousness of where Naruto was going to try and hit him was unbelievable. When Naruto threw the punch, Denkou caught his fist and twisted it so his entire right shoulder, neck, arm, and side were wide open to attack.

Instead of attacking Naruto's open spots, he grabbed Naruto by the collar of his orange jacket, lifted him over his head and threw him. He kept hold of Naruto's fist, making the blonde-haired boy slam into the ground.

Naruto hit the ground with a lot of force. Naruto felt his air escape from his lungs and the pain from the landing shot all the way up his body. Oh god, how it hurt. Naruto wasn't sure what even happened, he had a wide open punch on the guys face then all of sudden he's on the ground, trying to catch his breath. This guy was _fast_.

Naruto slowly got up, coughing, and taking in gulps of air. He shook his head and looked up at Denkou, who was smirking. He got to one knee, and with the use of his hands stood up also. Naruto felt his face heat up from embarrassment at the pathetic display. He didn't look at Denkou.

Denkou chuckled. "Well, I now know where you are with your abilities. You don't know an jutsu, do you?"

Naruto shook his head, "Only kawarimi and henge."

Nodding, Denkou looked at the darkening sky. "Well, I really do have a clean slate to work with."

Naruto looked at him, "Sensei?"

Denkou stared at Naruto, unused to being called that. "Yes?"

Naruto stared at him, "How could you find out from one simple attack where I am with my abilities?"

Denkou smiled at his willingness to learn. "Well, one attack can show almost everything about a person. Unless they're trying to deceive you. I'll teach you how to actually do it at a later time. But you see, I could tell just how fast you were when you ran at me. I could tell how strong you were when I caught your fist. I could tell how good you were with taijutsu based off of where I knew you were going to try to punch me. And I could tell just how pain resistant you were when I threw you to the ground. Quite hard might I add."

Naruto stared, he couldn't believe what his sensei just said. He didn't even know what to say to that! How could anyone? Just off of one attack, the man had broken down all of his physical aspects. Off of _one_ attack!

Denkou, seeing Naruto's look, chuckled. "Of course there are much more determining factors than just that, Naruto. We have chakra reserves, we have chakra control, how many jutsu's you have, if you mastered your jutsu's. Whether or not you use a sword. Genjutsu abilities or not. What your chakra affinity is. How determined you are to win a fight, you see all of those things affect a fight. And many more. It's all a combination."

Naruto blinked, unsure of how to take that information. He grinned though. He could tell that his sensei knew what he was talking about and he was excited to learn whatever he could from the man.

Naruto grinned and put his hands behind his head. "So, what now?"

Denkou sighed, knowing that they would have to start their real training tomorrow. "Well, tomorrow we start the first day of training. So you might want to get to bed, but seeing as you just got here and you have less than an hour before the sun sets, and you are okay in the nighttime. I'll let you wander around the valley. You know, to get used to it. But don't stay out too late."

Naruto was about to grumble about not being able to spend time outside in the dark, but Denkou cut him off.

"Now I'm only suggesting this. But I'm warning you. My training will not be fun, it'll be brutal and you're going to hate me while we are training. Going to bed early is only a suggestion. The consequences are yours to deal with."

With that final word, Denkou left towards the house, somehow carrying Naruto's backpack in his hand. Naruto blinked. He never felt him take it off. It must have been before his little 'fight' because Naruto obviously hadn't felt it when he landed on his back.

Naruto suddenly realized something. "Oi! Denkou!"

He ran after Denkou, who stopped, eyebrow raised. "Hai?"

Naruto caught up to him and grinned, "Where am I sleeping tonight?"

Denkou smiled, "Ah, yes I forgot about that. I might as well show you around the house also, shouldn't I?"

Naruto grinned. He followed the black haired man into the house and Denkou went threw the entire house. The room with shoes apparently went into another room which led to a cave on the inside of the house with a huge metal door, with several seals on it. Which Denkou explained to Naruto that if they were ever to be attacked, They would set up their defenses in front of the house, but escape threw this back area with out them noticing.

Denkou then took Naruto to one of the closed doors that was a kitchen, which he found out led downstairs to an indoor training dojo. Many different weapons hung on the walls and the training dojo itself had many different dummies either built into the floor or hanging from the ceiling. Naruto couldn't help but grin at sheer awesomeness of this house.

After coming back upstairs, Naruto looked at the other closed door and had a spike of curiosity.

"Oi, Denkou?"

Denkou looked at Naruto, "Hai?"

Naruto pointed to the closed door, "What's in that room?"

Denkou blinked and looked over towards the door before chuckling. "Naruto, that is my study. If I have one rule in this household its that I only want you to go in there if you have either my permission too, or if I'm accompanying you. Most of the time, both will occur at the same time."

Naruto waved his hand, "Bah, rules. Only there for me to break 'em."

Denkou looked at Naruto, "If you break the only rule I have for you at the moment, then I will send you back to Konoha and I won't train you."

Naruto paled.

It was true of course.

After that brief moment. Denkou took Naruto upstairs which Naruto found out was a really awesome place to be. When you first come up the stairs, you look straight into a mirror. Which made Naruto blink. To the direct left of the stairs was a guest room. Directly across from the guest bedroom was the master bedroom where Denkou slept. The door was closed. A bathroom was in between the rooms on the wall opposite of the stairway.

Across from the bathroom was an open foyer. The only thing separating the stairs from the foyer was a wooden railing. The foyer itself had nothing but a rug under the wooden floor and two couches directly opposite of each other. Their was a glass door with intricate designs that led outside to a fairly large balcony. There was a round table off to one side with three chairs surrounding that table. It was a beautiful sight.

Naruto really enjoyed the balcony. He had to admit. But he felt the need to sleep at the moment. The day's excitement was wearing off and he could feel exhaustion in his body.

Naruto entered his bedroom, and looked around. His backpack was on his bed already with all the orange jumpsuits being folded and already put in his closet. The first thing Naruto noticed about his bedroom was the size of it.

God damn, this thing was huge. A bed at least the size of a queen size was in the middle of the wall opposite of the door, with the middle of the room being cut into two sections. The upper level and the lower level. The thing the separated the room was a small set of stairs going straight across from wall to wall. It was only an incline of about three or four steps but enough to make the room itself look bigger. In the right corner of the room was I gigantic desk. Several blank scrolls were on it with many pens, pencils, erasers and white out. Naruto smiled.

To his left was a dresser, and next to the dresser was a huge full body mirror. The whole room felt very comfortable. Painted it earthy colors and with two windows to the outdoors, Naruto felt like he could really enjoy this room. The windows themselves were on either side of his bed, right above both of his night stands. On the upper level of his bed room was two doors. He opened one and saw a rather large walk in closet, which was filled with clothes of all styles and colors. And the other one was a small bathroom. A shower was in the corner, a toilette, and a single sink, complete with the mirror above the sink and the cabinet underneath the sink.

On the left side of his upper part of the two level bed room was a medium sized bookshelf, filled with scrolls and books. Naruto felt a smile creep over his face. He couldn't believe just how much his life changed. It was literally a 180 degree change to his life. Naruto took off all his clothes and changed into his sleeping clothes that he found in the dresser next to the mirror. Blinking Naruto looked at the bathroom in his room and grinned.

Why not test out his bathroom the first night here?

Naruto quickly unchanged again and hopped in his shower. Enjoying the freshness of a wash. With out even thinking about how Denkou managed to buy the same shampoo and body wash that Naruto uses, he cleaned himself thoroughly.

Naruto got out and dried his body thoroughly, and enjoying the feeling of walking out of his room naked, he picked up his night clothes and put them on again. He used the towel to dry his hair. Shaking his head to get any extra water droplets off, he jumped in bed.

Literally. The boy took a running start and dived in the covers. Enjoying the freshness of everything. He turned on this back, tucked his hands behind his head and looked up towards the ceiling. Thinking about the day's events.

Naruto couldn't have gotten any luckier, he grinned. A strong sensei to train him hard, a very nice house. A secluded area away from the hateful glares of the villagers.

Yeah, everything was looking to be a lot better.

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_*****Very important! A.N. Please read!*****_

Hiya everyone! Yes, this is the very first chapter of the _**redone**_ version of Suna's Fire Fox. I have a few things to discuss with you all right now so please don't flip out.

1.) The plot will be a tad bit different. Much better, but different. If you liked the old plot line of the whole 'Kyuubi training Naruto' I'm sorry for changing it. But it needed to happen.

2.) This new plot line will loosely follow the manga until his three year training trip that he WILL be having, by the way. Then it'll follow the manga quite closely.

3.) Sasuke's death will **NOT **be the reason why Naruto leave's Konoha.

4.) Naruto will have Shishiu. He'll just acquire the small fury fox a different way.

5.) He WILL have a sword.

6.) Unlike before I will explain Naruto's training to a great detailed point. But writing two years of nonstop training will be hard to do, so I plan to have some time skips in there. Over all. Naruto's two year training might take about two or three chapters. And then it's the genin exams.

7.) The pairings I'm not so sure about. If there is one thing that I hate the most about almost 100% of Fanfiction writers, it's that Naruto falls in love with the first person he dates and they are inlove and they get married and they have kids and their always in love no matter what!

Well...Real life doesn't happen that way. So Naruto will have a few different girlfriends before he finds the girl he wants to marry. He might even date every single girl on the series before he finds…._the one_.

So pairings will vary through out the entire story. Get over it. Except there is one kind of pairing that will never happen in any of the books I will be writing. Which is yaoi. Or yuri. Sorry guys….and/or girls.

And finally.

8.) This book is going to be heavily influenced by the writings of Geor-Sama. Which I love his books. If no one here has read **Naruto: Altered History**. You quit reading my book and go to that one. It's by far, the best book on fan fiction. BY FAR!

So with out further ado. The redone story of Suna's Fire Fox. Hoped you liked this version better. Cuz I did.

Ja'Ne

11-Tailed Demon Wolf


	2. Chapter 2

Yo. Second chapter. I got it going.

**Suna's Fire Fox**

"Speaking"

"_Thoughts" _

_Flashbacks_

"**Demon/Summon speaking"**

"_**Demon/Summon thoughts"**_

**Jutsu name or Jutsu**

Disclaimer: I own nothing but a car.

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"Oh, Naruto-kuuuuuuuun. Please, don't stop!"

"Sakura-chan? You don't want me to stop?" He stopped.

"No! Naruto-sama, give it to me! Put it in my mouth!"

"You want it in your mouth? Tell me Sakura-chan…What does it taste like?"

He put it in. "Hmmmmmm Naruto-sama. It tastes like pork! Maybe sausage?"

He gasped. "Sakura-chan. I'm going to have to punish you. Because you know what miso tastes like. You shouldn't have gotten that wrong. Sakura-chan….I'm sorry but you fail your ramen test. I'm going to have to punish you for that… bend over Sakura-chan…"

She started bending over and Naruto brought back his hand, smirking. Naruto swung and right when he was about to hit her…!

_*Splash*_

Naruto jerked upward, sputtering as the ice cold water dripped from his hair and face. Eyes wide and heart beating fast he looked around for the assailant. Naruto found Denkou and pointed at him.

"You fucking bastard! I was just getting to the good part!"

Denkou chuckled, "Oh, I remember when I was your age. Everything started earlier. No foreplay, but somehow….it still lasted longer."

Naruto growled and lunged at the man who sidestepped, which in turn caused Naruto to fall to the ground face first. Tangled in all of the bed sheets he pulled to the floor with him.

He glared up at the man, "I'm going to tear your throat out! You asshole!"

Denkou chuckled, "The only thing your tearing out of, is those bed sheets. You have five minutes to get dressed and outside ready for the day ahead of us."

Naruto blinked finally coming to realize that it was still dark…_very_ dark.

"What time is it?"

Denkou looked around at him, "Ah, it's only 4."

With that Denkou shunshin'd out of the room, leaving a very pissed off Naruto.

Naruto let a streamline of curses fly, while he struggled to untangle himself from the bed. He got up and took off his night clothes, taking his time. And obviously not believing what his sensei had said. Then he put his regular orange jumpsuit on. He was attempting to put his pants on, at such an early time in the morning for Naruto it was nearly impossible to function correctly. Naruto fell over.

"Dammit!"

Naruto walked down the stairs trying to put on his jacket. He opened the door and jogged outside towards Denkou. Stopping in front of the man, he grinned.

Denkou raised an eyebrow. Naruto grinned at him and put his hands behind his head cockily. Naruto's eyes almost popped out of their head as he felt a sudden flaring pain rocket through his stomach. The air was forced out of him as crumpled to the ground. Naruto, if he had any food in his stomach, would have puked from such a harsh blow. He couldn't catch his breath, he tried to breath but his lungs would allow themselves to work.

Denkou dropped his fist back towards his side, staring contemptuously at Naruto.

"You were late."

Naruto saw Denkou's foot at the last second. His kick had connected with the entire left side of his head. His head shot to the right, twisting at an impossible and quite painful angle. The rest of his body followed. Naruto lied there, feeling blood ooze down the side of his mouth. He held his head as the flaring and pain throbbed, with every heart beat, the pain would almost double.

Naruto forgot about Denkou and the blood as he clutched his head. It was a searing pain. Tears threatened to spill out of the corners of his eyes. He refused them pass though.

After a little bit sitting there, Naruto gathered his bearings and looked up towards Denkou, who had a sneer on his face.

"And after you were late, you even had the balls to grin at me and act like nothing was wrong. You cocky little bitch."

Naruto felt a raging hot anger boil inside of his body. Spitting the blood at Denkou's feet he stood up and glared at him the best he could.

"What the hell was that about you asshole!"

Denkou smirked, "That. Was the very first thing I taught you."

Naruto felt like punching him. Anything to cause this man in front of him pain. "Taught me! What the hell did you teach me! You just punched me and then put a fucking boot in my head! What does that teach me?"

Again, Naruto didn't even see the man move, but he did feel the hand around his throat in an instant.

"When I said you had five minutes to get down here, what did you do? You fucked around! And you were late! Are you going to be late next time!"

Naruto tried spitting at him, "Fuck you!"

Denkou slapped him harshly across his face, Naruto blinked back hot tears as the stinging pain remained in his face. He turned and glared at the man.

"Answer the goddamn question or I'll cut you in half!"

"NO! I won't be late next time! Alright! Jesus fucking Christ! You fucking ass. HOLE!"

Naruto dropped like a sack of potatoes, not expecting the psychotic man to release him from his clutches. Naruto stood up glaring daggers at the man, who stood there smirking at Naruto.

"See what I mean? I just taught you your first lesson. Never be late."

Naruto blinked at the guy's sudden change of attitude. He felt the need to say a highly inappropriate and snarky remark, but decided against it. He settled for grumbling under his breath, wiping blood off his chin.

Denkou sat down, and waved for Naruto too as well. Naruto flopped on the ground, glaring at the man in front of him.

Denkou chuckled, "Naruto. I need you to listen to my words. They are very important for these two years that you will spend with me. Do you understand?"

Naruto rolled his eyes, and waved him off. "Yeah. Yeah, whatever."

Narrowing his eyes dangerously, he tried to show Naruto just how serious this really was. "Do. You. Understand?"

Naruto sighed, "Yes I understand, okay?"

Denkou nodded, accepting the answer. Despite the boy's obvious lack of respect and his completely rude attitude. He had a willingness to learn. He could see it in his eyes. Something that many children with attitudes like his lacked.

After reading about Naruto in the scroll Saru-ji-san gave him yesterday, Denkou knew he had his work cut out for him. But he also knew that he was blessed with the knowledge that Naruto could take any kind of torture/training he could throw at him. Naruto, in the literal sense, was a humanized version of the old saying that goes 'whatever doesn't kill you, only makes you stronger.'

Which when he read the line about Naruto's abnormal healing abilities that borderlined regeneration, Denkou knew exactly how he was going to train him.

Naruto would never feel good while he's training.

Being a retired shinobi, the man knew that in order to train one's physical body, they would need to break down the muscles and allow the body's natural healing process rebuild them back up stronger. Which in a way creates the soreness the next day after intense training sessions. Which is why normal people only do 4 to maybe 5 days of physical training. The other days are dedicated to allowing their body to recuperate. Which in the end, makes them stronger than someone who trains themselves to the point of breaking physically, everyday.

Naruto, however, did not need to worry about that.

His healing abilities would allow him to push himself past his physical limits every day and come back the next day, ready to go. That added bonus for Denkou was, by far, his favorite thing about him already. Besides the fact that the boy was a fairly good kid.

Now, back to the matter at hand. Yesterday, when Denkou had tested him for those very brief moments. He had deduced that Naruto had been given no physical training regime at all when he was growing up.

So that's the first thing he's going to improve.

Denkou thought about what he was going to say, "Naruto, I'm going to have a set of 'rules'…so to speak. One of the first rules I want you to have memorized by right now, is to always call me sensei."

Naruto blinked, "Gotcha…you're sensei. Kinda already figured."

Denkou ignored his remark, but held up two fingers, "Second rule. If you do not take my training serious, you will be in a lot of pain. So much so that the only way for you to escape it is for you to beg for me to knock you unconscious. And if it ever comes to that. I will dump you off at Saru-ji-san's office. And leave you there. You will be done training with me. Understood?"

Naruto nodded, knowing that this training would be hard and was willing to battle against his lack of motivation. He needed to learn, he wanted to learn.

Three fingers held up. "The third rule is that you will not, I repeat, will _NOT_ show or give away any fact that you are training with me when we visit the village. No one will know. The only thing that will even show that you've been training at all is that you will grow physically. And you can't help that. So that's allowed."

Naruto scowled, not liking the rule one bit. But he nodded. He would like to stay under the tutelage of Denkou.

Denkou stood up and smirked at Naruto, he held up his fourth finger. "And finally the fourth rule. I want you to understand that while I am your friend outside of training, I am your most hated enemy during training. I will push you farther than you've ever thought possible. You _will_ hate me. But I am truly your friend."

Naruto could feel those affects already. "You're an asshole, your eyes are the most ridiculous color in the world. And I think you have multiple personalities! But I respect you. And I think that you are the right person to teach me."

Naruto gave him his most confident smile he could muster, trying to get Denkou to understand that he truly meant what he said, and wasn't being cocky. Thankfully the man smiled, understanding. Naruto put his hands behind his head.

"So what are we gonna do first sensei? You gonna teach me an awesome jutsu or something!"

Denkou chuckled, "Not quite. You see Naruto. Right now, your body is…in better words. Lacking. You are slow, weak, and while your reflexes are good, they could be better. So for a while. We are only going to be working on two things, before you even _think _about anything else."

Naruto scowled at how bluntly the man said it, but raised an eyebrow. "Which is…?"

"Your body and your chakra."

Naruto blinked, "My body? Chakra? What's wrong with my chakra?"

Denkou shrugged. "Nothing his wrong with your chakra other than you have huge reserves. Much more than anyone your age. Or chunin for that matter. Which means with large reserves, you'll have to work twice as hard to be decent with you chakra control. And when I say your body I mean, conditioning, speed, strength, your arms, core, legs, lungs, reflexes. Everything."

Naruto nodded, not sure if he was liking where this conversation was going.

Denkou grinned, Naruto gulped at the sadistic look he had in his eyes. "And every morning we are going to start off with a warm up and then start to do your physical work out. Okay?"

Naruto shivered, he'd be lying if he said he wasn't nervous.

"So, Naruto, for your warm up I want you to run on the very edge of this valley, oh lets say 15 times."

Naruto paled, the clearing was humungous. Probably a half a mile wide. He was about to protest, but he saw his sensei's look and figured that if he said a single word of complaint that he probably would be on the ground again. In extreme pain.

Naruto started his jogging, grumbling. Denkou grinned and watched Naruto jog around the clearing. He frowned, he pointed a single finger at Naruto, and unconsciously pushed his elemental chakra out the end of it. His chakra element was lightning.

A streamline of bright blue lightning shot at Naruto and Naruto yelped loudly as he felt the electricity flow through his body, painfully giving a jolt to his body. Naruto stumbled and fell. He could faintly hear his sensei yell at him.

"Faster you little bitch! You need to go faster!"

Naruto growled curses at the man before he got up and started to run, instead of jog. Naruto felt another bold of lightning go through him and he grunted in pain as it rushed threw his body. He managed to stay standing this time.

"Faster!"

Not wanting to experience more lightning and/or pain he burst out into a sprint, panting at his body protesting the exercise. Naruto could feel the ache in his legs already as stayed sprinting. He was only half way done with the first lap and his legs were tired. Oh man this'll be a very long day.

Denkou watched, amused, as his clone brought him his breakfast. He ate it silently, watching Naruto sprint his fastest. His laps would be a very hard thing for the boy. He frowned as he saw Naruto slow down again, this time from being tired after finishing one lap. He sent another bolt at Naruto. Who yelped and in between breaths, cursed his existence.

Denkou chuckled.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Naruto lied on the ground. Exhausted already. His legs were sore from doing all his running. After his 15 laps around the valley, Denkou made him stretch for 30 minutes, claiming that his flexibility was pathetic and it also prevented many injuries. So Naruto stretched, literally, every single muscle and joint in his body. With Denkou's help of course. After Naruto did that, he was told to do 250 push ups, sit ups, squats, lunges, pull ups (Which he found were much harder than any of the others) and also Denkou timed with other things such as planks, leg raises, holding a bucket of water in front of him, and handstands all for 15 minutes each. Even after _that_ Denkou claimed that his running and reflexes were not done.

So Denkou made him do a drill that was called, suicides. Denkou drew 8 lines. From one valley to another and told him the point of the drill was to teach him how to stop and go, but maintain his speed. Naruto had to sprint to the first line, bend down to touch it then sprint to the starting line and bend down to touch it, then sprint down to the second line, bend down and touch it, and then come back and sprint to the starting line and touch it, etc.

All the while Denkou was shooting bolts of lightning at him, telling him to dodge. Or the man was throwing rocks at him, and they _hurt._ Doing all that too the 8th line and back to the start was only a set of 1. He had to do 25 sets. At full speed. Or face the consequences.

Now he knew why they were called suicides.

Thus, this was the reason Naruto lay there, thinking of how bad of an idea this was to do.

"Sensei, why am I doing this?"

"Because it increases all of your physical abilities. Duh."

Naruto scowled, "I mean, why? If I do all this I won't even break a sweat when a real challenge comes up! This is by far the hardest thing I've ever done."

Denkou chuckled, thinking back to himself at that age. Similar words coming out of his mouth.

"Naruto. Let me tell you something. For a hard 45 minute fight, you gotta train harder for 45,000 minutes."

Naruto blinked, he knew Denkou had a few random moments of geniusness but this man was probably as wise as the Old Man himself.

Denkou smirked, "Now get up you lazy bum, we still got chakra training to do."

Naruto sat up quickly, "What?" he immediately regretted it as he felt the soreness in his whole body catch up to him.

Denkou chuckled, "Training isn't over yet, you little punk."

Naruto fell over, "But sensei…"

Kicking Naruto slightly in the foot, "Oi, Naruto, you know what you are?"

"What?"

Denkou smirked, "You're a tomato."

Naruto blinked, "A tomato?"

Denkou nodded in confirmation. "Yeah and I'm training right now, not running some god damn soup kitchen. Now get up."

Naruto grumbled and slowly got to his feet, glaring daggers at the man that's torturing his body.

"Kid, have you ever heard of a training exercise called tree climbing?"

"Nope."

Denkou grinned, "Well then I'll explain it to you later. Right now! We are going to go have lunch."

Naruto blinked, for the first time, feeling the hunger in his stomach. He never noticed threw his exhaustion. He grinned.

"Yosh! Lunch!"

He got up and ran towards the house, ignoring Denkou's look of surprise as he passed him.

Denkou chuckled as the never ending bundle of energy passed him, running to the house. While he knew that he should have allowed Naruto to have breakfast, the boy would have puked after his warm up. No use in wasting food.

He followed after Naruto, knowing that the food was already done. He sent a clone about an hour ago, to prepare it. He wasn't exactly sure what they were eating.

He entered the house, close behind Naruto, and before Naruto could run onto the carpet, he picked him up by the back of his shirt. He glared at Naruto, who was struggling out of his grip.

"Shoes. Off. Now."

Naruto kicked his dirty, muddy, shoes off. Denkou watched in horror as they slowly descended towards the carpet. He threw Naruto to the side, and seemingly in slow motion, dived after the two falling shoes. He caught both of them in each hands. He let out a breath and glared at the source of the sound of laughing.

Naruto was standing to the left, pointing and laughing, the typical Naruto laugh. Mouth open wide, eyes closed, one hand grabbing his stomach, the other blatantly pointing at him.

Denkou's eyes narrowed.

The next second, Naruto fell over in pain. A dirty, muddy shoe glued to his face painfully. He groaned as he took it off his face and glared at Denkou who was pointing and laughing, the exact same way Naruto was a few seconds ago.

Naruto cocked back his arm, ready to throw the shoe back at his sensei. Only to smell the deliciousness coming from the kitchen. He drooled slightly, and sprinted toward the kitchen. Shoe dropped in front of the front door, safely off of the carpet. Denkou followed soon after.

Naruto sat down at the already set table, looking at the assorted foods gathered. Denkou sat down across from him.

The purple eyed man smirked at him, "Hunger eh? Well then, Itadakimasu!"

Naruto reached with his fork for a bundle of pancakes, he piled them onto his plate. He then reached for the sunny side up eggs on a separate plate, thinking that he could eat all the food set out before them. He grinned as he noticed the apple juice in his cup. He poured syrup on all of his food and dove into his food.

"So Naruto, I need to explain to you about a few things while we are eating, kay?"

Naruto nodded, his mouth to full to really make comprehensible words. Denkou continued.

"So over the next few months, I'm going to be training you to control your chakra better, and to get you in shape for the taijutsu styles I'm going to be teaching you. There's two of them. And they will be very hard to do. They both require an unbelievable amount of speed. Which after this month, I will put a seal on you that's called a gravity seal. I'll explain more about that later."

He took another bite of his food, chewed and then swallowed. He pointed his fork at Naruto, nonchalantly.

"We're going to find out what your chakra affinity is also so I can give you a certain amount of jutsu to go along with your elemental affinity. Which is why I'm going to improve your chakra control. But for now, we are just going to have to improve the basics of everything. I personally never was the best at genjutsu, but I'm very good at taijutsu and ninjutsu. And I like to think that I'm one of the greatest at kenjutsu."

Naruto looked up, confused. "Kenjutsu?"

Nodding, Denkou sipped his coffee in front of him, slowly withering down on his plate of food. While Naruto was chowing down, listening to Denkou intently.

"Yes. Kenjutsu is the where someone specializes in the use of weapons. Using kunai and shuriken is called your kenjutsu styles. Also, the use of a weapon like a sword or trench knives, or even a hammer is considered kenjutsu. Which I will teach you how to fight with a sword on year 2 of your training. But I will set up training dummies so you can improve you aim and form with kunai and shuriken."

Naruto nodded, not understanding how he would be able to get any weapon from the stores in Konoha seeing as they kick him out when he enters. But he went along with his sensei. The man knew what he was talking about. Who was speaking again.

"So also, I decided that on year two, we are going to be doing a lot of things. We'll mainly spar a lot but I'll still be teaching you jutsu and what not. But also I'll be training you to control and use the Kyuubi's chakra to your advantage. I'm not sure what 'power' he gave you, other than your healing abilities. So we'll just have to find out as we go. And I said that I'll teach you how to use a sword your second year. But I won't give away any other things I have in store for you."

He threw Naruto a wink as the two of them finished their meal, and simultaneously leaned back and sighed. Enjoying the break they both got from training.

Naruto felt a little bit of energy return to him. Denkou felt a little bit of calmness return to him. Denkou stood up and stretched.

"Let's go, Naruto, we aren't done yet."

Naruto whined, "But senseeeeeeeiiiiiii."

Deadpanned look. "Don't make me bitch slap you kid."

Naruto snickered but got up and obeyed, knowing that what the man would definitely keep his threats.

Once outside, Denkou waved Naruto over to the few trees in the area. It was very big. Denkou felt a little sorry about the fact that Naruto is going to completely mutilate this tree and be an eyesore to his beautiful valley, but he had a duty as a sensei.

He led Naruto to a tree, and three a kunai at Naruto's feet, who stopped walking, thinking that he did something wrong to deserve such an act.

"Pick it up, this is your chakra training. It's called tree climbing."

Naruto picked up the kunai and gave Denkou a deadpanned look.

"Sensei, what do you want me to use this kunai for? I mean, I could see climbing it barehanded, or give me two kunai to climb myself up but only one? I don't see how that'll help me."

Denkou smirked, "Oh Naruto, you wont be using your hands in this training exercise. Only your feet."

Naruto raised an eyebrow skeptically, but knew deep down that it was possible. After all, normal people shouldn't just be able to jump two stories high to get on top of a roof.

Denkou gave him one last cocky look before slowly walked towards the tree. He didn't stop however when he got to the tree, but instead put his foot on the tree and proceeded to climb upward. Naruto looked at him in awe. As Denkou continued walking up the tree, onto a branch, and hang upside down. He looked up to look down at Naruto.

He waved at Naruto. "You try. Only get a running start. Use your kunai to cut into the bark to show where you ended. Do it every time to mark your progress."

Naruto looked at the kunai, then at the tree. "Uh, Sensei? How exactly do I do it?"

Denkou shrugged, "If you were any other person I'd tell you to figure it out on your own. But you're not the brightest bulb in the box. So the trick is, you focus your chakra to the very bottom of your feet. Too much chakra, you'll shoot off the tree. Too little and you won't stick."

Denkou was a good teacher. This is what Naruto had decided that day, despite the pain this man put him threw. But he explained things so Naruto could understand them quite well.

Denkou waved for him to go. "The reason why we start with the feet first is because the foot is the hardest place to concentrate your chakra. Don't be frustrated if you don't get this right away. It's difficult for someone at your beginning level to get this."

Naruto nodded, and made the ram seal he was taught in the academy. He concentrated his chakra. He felt it going to his foot, it was going good. Very good. Concentrate….he continued to pour his chakra to his feet…almost there…good.

Naruto opened his eyes, grinning. He was sure he put the correct amount of chakra into his foot. He sprinted forward, kunai in hand. He took one step onto the tree, grinning, almost instinctively knowing that it was perfect and that this training exercise wouldn't take him any longer than an hour.

He put that foot down, ready to take the second step. He wasn't expecting his foot to rocket off the tree, dragging his body along with the momentum.

Naruto screamed as he was thrown 50 feet back, towards the very middle of the valley. He landed roughly and continued to roll and slide across the ground. He groaned as his body stopped moving. His face down. Man that had _hurt._

Denkou appeared in front of him quite suddenly, chuckling. "Whatcha doing on the ground?"

Naruto growled at him, "Eating dirt, you asshole. What's it look like?"

Denkou grinned, "It looks like you're messing around, kiddo!"

"I'm not a kid!" Naruto snapped at him, getting up. "I'm 12 years old!"

"Point proved." Denkou retorted, smirking at him. He grabbed the back of Naruto's shirt and pulled him to feet. Handing him the kunai he dropped.

"Keep at it. Until you master this, you're not going to be doing any other chakra training. Now remember, not as much chakra as you put into that."

Naruto nodded and grumbled, but took the kunai. He dusted himself off and walked back to where they were training before.

He stood in front of the tree, glaring at it. He believed he could do this! No problem. He gathered his chakra at the bottom of his feet, making sure he put a lot less into it this time, and sprinted forward.

He put his foot on the tree…only to shoot off once again.

Denkou laughed at Naruto who was getting up and literally growling. He shot Denkou a dark glare. He gathered his chakra at the bottom of his feet again, putting barely any chakra into it at all, and sprinted forward. Determined to get this right this time.

He put one foot on tree and was about to bring the second foot up to take a step, only to have his chakra gripping slip. Naruto landed at the base of the tree. It knocked the wind out of him. He groaned as he got up and looked at the tree, glaring daggers at it. Wishing he could burn it to the ground. He peeked a glance over at his sensei who sat under a nearby tree, watching him.

He wanted to ask for a tip or advice or anything to help him but his pride got in the way. So instead, he settled for hating the man. Naruto groaned, stepped back and concentrated his chakra. He put it between the points where he would either shoot off or slip off. A perfect medium.

He got the right amount, he thought and sprinted towards the tree. He put one foot on the tree, and brought his other foot up. He grinned as his other foot grabbed hold, and he was in the process of taking his third step up the tree when he heard his sensei shout at him.

"Don't forget to mark your progress!"

Naruto's concentration slipped and he felt his footing slide out from underneath him. He growled as he slashed the tree with his kunai and hopped off. He looked at the tree, expecting it to be super high off the ground. But felt his jaw drop instead.

A measly 3 feet off the ground.

Naruto glared at his sensei, blaming him for the reason his concentration slipped. He sighed, and did the same thing as before. He sprinted, He took three steps, his foot slipped, he marked his spot, he landed, he looked…

And he got a whole 3 inches farther!

Naruto snarled at the tree, finally realizing this is going to be a lot harder than he thought.

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Naruto walked slowly inside the house, exhausted. It was about 10 at night and all he wanted to do was sleep. For the rest of that afternoon, Naruto slowly, _very_ slowly, climbed the tree. Denkou would watch and occasionally give him tips. But nothing seemed to help Naruto better than the experience.

Denkou called him in for some dinner after a while. Naruto never noticed him go inside. He was too focused on his training. At dinner, they two of them talked about some small things. Denkou asked about the village, and told him about some of his adventures when he was young.

Naruto learned something about the man for the day that he's been there. And that is that Denkou talks. A lot. More so than Naruto. Which is already a lot. It was good natured, and Naruto rather enjoyed him talking. He wasn't annoying at all, it was very nice.

There was another thing Naruto learned from his one day there, and that was he enjoyed working Naruto to death. Naruto was crawling up the stairs to get to his room at the moment. It seemed like it took forever. Once Naruto got into his room, he stripped naked and was tempted to just crawl in his bed with out a shower. But he knew that would have been disgusting.

Naruto went into his bathroom and tiredly turned his shower on. He let it warm up, before he hopped it. He washed himself on instinct. Almost consciously unaware of what he was doing. He scrubbed his body and washed his hair, almost asleep. He rinsed, dried off, and left the bathroom, He knew he had the decency to put some boxers on. And then he crawled into his bed. He didn't give a second thought about anything. Right when his head hit the pillow. He was out.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

For the next two months Naruto's training continued this way. At first Naruto thought everything they were doing was useless. But after a month or so, he could not only feel the results, he could see them also. Naruto has always had a thin body, but after the first month he could see a leanness also. Gone was a lot of the baby fat he still had on his body, and instead it was replaced with lean, firm muscle.

Naruto didn't necessarily have a chiseled chest or abdomen. Instead it was all compacted. He could see a six pack, but it didn't stick out. What caught Naruto by surprise though, was the sudden growths spurt he had. He gained a couple inches, which he thought it was because of the food he was eating. Naruto dearly missed his ramen, but he didn't mind not being as short.

Naruto's exercises increased every week. His 'warm-up' sprint laps around the valley, increased to 35. His sets of push ups, sit ups, pull ups, squats, and lunges were increased to 450 each day. Which he could hardly take at the end of the day. His timed workouts of planks, leg raises, water bucket holding, and handstands increased to 30 minutes each. And his sets of suicides went from doing 25 sets and having only one demented man throw rocks or shoot bolts of lightning at him, to doing 55 sets and having _many_ demented assholes 'testing' his reflex's.

Once the first month was done, Denkou permanently imprinted a seal onto the middle of his back. It was the gravity seal. Naruto could honestly say that he hated that seal, almost as much as he hated Denkou. He wanted to rip the skin of the tattoo off and burn it, but despite his hatred towards the black seal, he knew that he was probably well above his age group, physically. He couldn't wait to beat Sasuke's face into the ground.

After the morning was done, Naruto would always swear at Denkou. Calling him many inappropriate names, and would always swear upon his death. He hated him. It was later in the afternoons did Naruto really appreciate him as a sensei.

It took him a week to complete the tree climbing exercise. And after that, Denkou introduced water walking. Naruto thought that was the coolest thing ever. But this exercise took him over two weeks to complete. It was much harder than tree climbing.

Denkou told him it was simply because he had enormous chakra reserves for anyone at his age. But after water walking, Denkou taught him the art of leaf sticking. Which Naruto learned in about two days. He found that it was a lot easier than the other two.

After the leaf sticking, was leaf floating. It was were he had to float a leaf above the palm of his hand. Too much, the leaf blew up and away. Too little, the damn thing didn't go anywhere. Needless to say. Naruto got frustrated very fast.

But even he managed to master that. But he soon cursed Denkou as he threw a kunai at him and told him to do that with the kunai. Naruto hated the man with a passion. Nobody, and he means nobody, could ever cause so much frustration in Naruto other than Denkou.

During the months, the Hokage had visited once or twice, complementing Naruto on his dedication and congratulating Denkou on the good work he was doing to Naruto. Naruto always enjoyed the Sandaime's visit's because it took Denkou's attention off of Naruto for a little bit, so he could slack off a tad. And because the old man would always bring the three of them Ichiraku ramen.

But through out these months, Naruto had to wake up every single day at 4 a.m…which is part of the reason why Naruto was very confused at this very moment.

Naruto was sitting up, looking around his room. Very suspicious. Something was wrong, something was terribly wrong…

Naruto just woke up. And there was light flooding into his room.

Naruto narrowed his eyes, and took out a kunai from under his pillow. Something that he had hoped to use on Denkou one of these days. He slowly climbed out of his bed, wearing nothing but his boxers and a pair of pajama pants.

He went down to the door and opened it slowly, he peeked out in the hallway. He looked at the mirror to see if anyone was standing on the stairs. Nothing. He opened his door all the way and looked around the corner, all the way downstairs. Still nothing. Slowly he crept down the stairs, making sure to stick very close to the walls. Once he got down the stairs, he peeked around the corner to make sure nobody was there. Still nothing.

Naruto very quietly crept into the kitchen…

"Good morning!"

Naruto yelled in surprise and instinctively sliced at Denkou's head. Denkou 'eeped' and ducked under the slash.

"Hey! It's me, you idiot!"

Naruto blinked and grinned slightly, "Serves you right. You scared the shit outta me."

Denkou stared at him, "By saying 'good morning?'"

Naruto glared, "Yes."

Shrugging, Denkou went to the table and sat down at it, eating pancakes, eggs, bacon, and sausage. A cup of coffee next to him as he ate. He gestured Naruto to sit down where there was an identical plate next to Denkou. Naruto silently did as Denkou told. He took his eating utensils and started munching on the food Denkou made for him.

"We have a very important day today."

Naruto looked at Denkou, who was sipping his coffee. "I kinda figured that, since, you know, I was able to wake up later than usual."

Denkou nodded, "I let you sleep in. We're heading to the village today so we can get you the tools you'll need for the rest of the year. We'll go back every once in a while just to visit. But we also need to get you new clothes, which I think we can hold off until you're training is done with. You know, growth spurts and what not…."

His eyes lingered on Naruto's orange jumpsuit in disgust. It really wasn't orange anymore. A mixture of a brownish color and dark red stains were all over the…clothes. Denkou's lightning had left Naruto's clothes singed many many times, combined with a lot of training and being on the ground the whole thing was just nasty.

It was the same with the rest of his jumpsuits, which Denkou silently cheered about.

"For the rest of your training, and for today when we go into Konoha, you can just wear a some of my old clothes. I don't really have any use for them anymore. But just to avoid the village's _glares_," he spat out the word, over the past few weeks, he couldn't help but grow attached to Naruto and hearing about how the village treated him, angered Denkou. "I'll letcha wear a mask to cover your whiskers."

Naruto nodded, knowing about Denkou's growing fondness of him. Naruto knew the exact same thing was happening to himself also. Despite hating him while training, Denkou always made up for it after training. Usually the two would talk about themselves or just talk about really random subjects but occasionally, Denkou let Naruto get done with training early and the two of them would do really random activities.

Like Denkou trying to teach Naruto how to play an instrument.

Or teach him how to cook, fix his clothes with patches or sew it, or even just show him some interesting books he thought Naruto would like.

"When are we leaving?"

Denkou shrugged, "Probably after I get you some clothes, which'll be after breakfast."

Naruto nodded and finished his breakfast. He went up to his room, which Denkou had fallowed. Naruto flopped down on his bed and watched as Denkou went into his walk in closet. He was looking through the clothes he already had in there.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at what Denkou brought out a little bit later. He threw the clothes at Naruto. Naruto let a few hit him in the face, not bothering to lift his hands to catch the articles of clothing.

Naruto held up the shirt. It was a some sort nuance between a brown color and an orange color (think the color from the Texas Longhorns). It was fairly fashionable, but simple. Naruto shrugged, it might not have been a bright orange, but it'll do.

The pants were pure black cargo pants with many pockets. Twin matching belts were already around the waist. The orange/brown color matched the shirt.

Lastly Naruto held up a…. something in his hand. He gave Denkou a questioning look and pointed at it, "Uhhh, what's this?"

Denkou held it up the proper way and held it in front of his face, showing Naruto that it was a mask. And it only covered to the lower half.

"It's that mask I told you about. I got this idea from a friend of mine. His name is Hatake Kakashi. He's really cool, I think you'd like him. Maybe he could teach you a few jutsu's….another time. But go ahead, try on the stuff. I'm not entirely sure if it will fit you, but that's what I wore when I was your age. Minus the mask thing."

Naruto stripped out of his clothes, not caring if Denkou saw him naked. He was never raised to be ashamed of being naked in front of people. That and Denkou was a guy, and it's not like he hasn't seen something on a guy that he hasn't seen already. Naruto, quite frankly, didn't care.

He put on all of the clothes and the two went to the full body mirror that was in the room. Naruto smiled, he was liking the look.

The shirt fit him just fine, as well as the pants. The twin belts didn't do much to hold up his pants however as his boxers were still showing, but Naruto liked the way they looked when they were baggier. He put on the black mask, to match the pants, and pulled it down over his head. The mask was form fitting, so it covered everything under Naruto's eyes. The ears were left uncovered too.

Naruto blinked. Wow, did he look different. Nothing was too noticeable, so Naruto wouldn't stand out for being different, but enough to blend in with the crowd. His characteristic hair and eyes were really the only thing that was unchanged. Naruto felt Denkou's hand on his shoulder and turned to look at him.

Denkou was smiling at him, and holding his goggles in his hand. Naruto grinned and took them from Denkou, the only sign of his grin was the curving of his eyes. Naruto placed them on his forehead as they once were and felt very comfortable in his new clothes. Not only comfortable, but he felt….attractive. Something he didn't feel before.

Denkou made a 'hmm' noise. "Here, kiddo, lemme try something."

Naruto let Denkou face him and grab tufts of hair from underneath his goggles and pull on them slightly. Naruto relaxed, he always liked it when someone played or touched his hair. He felt Denkou place the tufts at the side of his face and he let go. Naruto couldn't see his what he did, but by the look of surprise and shock on Denkou's face, he was slightly nervous.

Naruto always tucked his side bangs behind his ears or underneath his goggles so they wouldn't get in his face. But when Denkou moved away to let Naruto see himself, he couldn't help but stare. He just looked so much….older. He also looked familiar. Which was an incredibly weird feeling.

Denkou gulped. Boy, how much Naruto looked like the Yondaime…it was scary. And Denkou knew that it wasn't a coincidence. He was there when Minato wasn't, for Kushina to give birth to Minato's son. It wasn't so much for Minato himself, but more for the love of Denkou's life. Kushina.

Denkou, himself, was considered as powerful as the Fourth Hokage, the difference between the two of them though was the fame. Denkou preferred to keep his power hidden, so nobody knew about it. While Minato was a noble, strong, and kind man. He was also a little bit of a show off. The only reason why people knew about his name more so than Murasaki Denkou.

He was the man at the side lines. His best friend got the power he worked so hard for, his best friend got the fame he longed for….his best friend got the girl he would die for…

And to see Minato's son standing here, looking just like his father, smiling happily. He couldn't help but think that Naruto was _his _son for a second. Denkou, for the first time, realized something about Minato. Minato had everything Denkou wanted, except for one thing.

A son.

Denkou smiled, the woman he loved gave birth to this beautiful boy, and he grew up just fine. But he'd be damned if Minato claimed this boy as a son which he didn't deserve. At this very moment, Denkou unofficially adopted Naruto. He didn't tell anyone, but he promised to himself that he would protect Naruto with his very life and soul before anything ever happened to him.

After all, it was his responsibility as his godfather…

Naruto coughed to get Denkou's attention. The man had just spaced off for a few moments, staring at Naruto with a look he's never seen before. It was kind of freaking the blonde out.

Denkou came back to real life and blinked a few times. He looked down at Naruto, who was crossing his arms.

"Are we going to go to the village soon sensei?"

Denkou licked his lips, trying to shake the strange feeling he had off. He nodded, "Yeah, we'll go right now."

Naruto grinned and walked out of the room, leaving Denkou standing there, staring. Shaking his head, he followed Naruto out of the room and to the downstairs. He followed Naruto out of the house, which they both had their shoes on their feet. Naruto's old and holey sandals were replaced with a pair of Denkou's old black sandals. They fit perfectly.

For the occasion, Denkou felt it necessary to dress up in something other than civilian clothes, He had a pair of navy cargo pants on, baggy, just like Naruto's but had his kunai pouch and shuriken holder in place. He threw on bright yellow extra padded t-shirt. The padding was put in strategic places to look unnoticeable but protect him as much as possible. Over top the yellow t-shirt he put on a hooded zip up jacket. This was also a navy color.

White ninja sandals was on his feet, making him look very snazzy. Naruto grinned at him, "Trying to impress the ladies, sensei?"

Denkou chuckled and ruffled Naruto's hair, "Always. I wouldn't mind getting some while I was in town."

Naruto scowled at the sexual talk. While Naruto had stayed at Denkou's house, he also came to terms with a few other things about the man. He was very good with the ladies. A few times he brought back some random girls and spent the night with them, and like a gentleman he fed them in the morning and escorted them back to their homes in Konoha.

Another thing was, no matter what Denkou wears, the man looks good. Constantly. Something Naruto was severely jealous of.

The last thing he decided about Denkou was that he would space off very randomly. Almost as if remembering something.

Naruto laughed and headed off in the direction of the valley entrance, excited to finally go back into Konoha.

Denkou chuckled, and followed after Naruto, ready for the day.

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The two of them were standing on top of the Hokage monument, walking down towards the actual village part. Denkou walking, hands in his pockets looking up at the clouds and Naruto walking, hands behind his head. He was grinning from ear to ear, though you really couldn't tell besides the small squints he had for eyes due to his mask. Naruto couldn't help but like the mask on his face. It felt really cool, and Naruto felt a little more secure about his identity with it on. He kind of liked the mask.

Naruto giggled like a man, "I can't wait to find Sasuke and show him how strong I've gotten."

Denkou glared at Naruto out of the corner of his eye, "Remember my rules Naruto…my third rule…"

Naruto scowled and rolled his eyebrows. "Oh right, your stupid 'no one must know I'm training you' rule."

Denkou smiled slightly, glad that Naruto remembered the rule at least. "I'm telling you, no fights. And don't get cocky. Right now your physical ability is about equal to that of your class. Your chakra control however is above theirs I can bet that…."

Naruto stopped and gave Denkou a incredulous look, "What? What are you saying I'm still as strong as the rest of my class! I thought I was way above them."

Denkou stopped walking also, he gave Naruto a bored look. "You've only been training for two months Naruto. To truly get strong Naruto you have to train for a long time. The training we did was enough to prepare your body for my taijutsu styles I'm teaching you. Which, really, I just needed to bring your physical strength up to about a genin. You're only a little in head of your class…"

Naruto felt himself get disappointed. Was he really that far behind before?

Sensing Naruto's distress, Denkou decided to cheer him up. "But with the way you've been training, you will be way above their level at the end of our two years. Granted they're still training too, but you just train harder. So, you'll get stronger faster."

Denkou shot Naruto a smile, who brightened at Denkou's remark. It was so easy to cheer him up.

"Hey, Naruto, I'm gonna go talk to Saru-ji-san for a little while, I'm going to get all of your supplies on my own, but go ahead and go around the village for a little while and just reacquaint yourself."

Naruto grinned and ran off, he knew where he was going to go first.

"Naruto! Don't go to Ichiraku's yet, 'cause I want some food too. Head there in about an hour and a half and I should be done."

Naruto's glared at his sensei but waved at him, "Yeah, fine! I'll see you at Ichiraku's in an hour and a half!"

Denkou felt a his stomach drop a little bit. "Don't get into any trouble!"

Naruto was already out of hearing range. Denkou felt his stomach drop some more. He felt like Naruto was going to do something. And Saru-ji-san won't be happy. He shrugged.

It couldn't be that bad…could it?

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Naruto walked down the streets of Konoha, hands behind his head, studying everything that changed. Which was nothing. But Naruto couldn't help but feel like he was on cloud nine. He had to admit. He missed being in Konoha.

He also admitted that he didn't miss the cold glares and the whispers as he passed. But today was different because nobody even looked at him. A few shot him friendly smiles, but that was all. Naruto guessed it was probably because he was out of the village for so long, and because of the mask. The villagers only knew him by the only mark he had of the Kyuubi, besides the seal.

They couldn't see his whisker marks.

Naruto shook his head, not caring really about why they weren't glaring at him, but enjoying the feeling of walking down the street without being disturbed.

Naruto walked in a random direction. Not exactly sure where to go. Naruto thought about pulling a prank, but he was afraid that pulling one would somehow break a rule and Naruto wouldn't be able to train under the man anymore. So Naruto decided to go to the only place he thought would keep him entertained.

After arriving at the academy, Naruto stared at it. He had so many memories here. Many of these memories weren't the happiest. But Naruto did have one good memory about this place. He wasn't IN it per-say. But it was about it. And that was him being trained currently by Denkou.

Naruto went around back and henge'd himself into a squirrel. He didn't want to be seen watching the classroom full of students. That would just be weird.

Naruto came to the classroom he knew would have belonged to him and his fellow classmates. He jumped up to a conveniently placed tree and sat down on the tree branch, using a little bit of chakra to keep him balanced. He focused some chakra into his ears like Denkou had told him once and he could hear all of the conversations going on in that classroom.

He studied all of the students. He could honestly say none of them had changed really. At all. He listened to the new instructor teach the class. His hair was brown and pulled back into a high ponytail. He had a very thin scar going across the his nose and under each eye. Naruto thought about what could have happened to him to get a scar like that.

Naruto continued listening to the man ramble on about history and what not. Naruto leaned back against the tree, he was tempted to leave, but something made him want to stay. He felt like he was apart of the class again. Sleeping, not paying attention, not getting lightning bolts shot at him whenever he day dreamed…

Naruto blinked when he heard the sensei yell for everyone to go outside for taijutsu practice. He watched in slight interest as they all headed towards the door. Several girls chased around a raven haired boy. Naruto's eyes narrowed and he growled slightly.

Uchiha Sasuke stepped out onto the training field, face set in a smirk. He obviously thought that he owned the world. After Sasuke, came two of his most loyal fan girls. Yamanaka Ino and Haruno Sakura.

Naruto felt his stomach flutter when he saw Sakura, and he couldn't help but smile. He watched all the students file out towards the training ground and separate into twos. Naruto frowned as he watched several of them practice quite pathetically.

"Wow, these academy students are quite….pathetic."

Naruto nearly fell out of the tree when he heard Denkou's voice. He whipped his head in his sensei's direction. He felt his heart slow down as he finally saw his sensei.

"Don't do that! I could have had a heart attack!"

Denkou chuckled lightly and gestured towards the academy students, "Have they always been so…weak?"

Naruto frowned, "I never thought they were weak when I was with them. I was the dead last."

Denkou frowned, "When I was that age…geez everything is so different. But it could have been because it was in a time of war."

Naruto didn't know how to respond to that, so he leaned back against the tree again and just watched the students below. All of them oblivious to the two civilians in the tree. Denkou crossed his legs and sat next to Naruto.

Naruto shot him a glance, "How did you find me anyway? I was under a henge…"

Denkou chuckled and patted Naruto's shoulder, "Kiddo, I still have a lot to teach you. While you henge'd perfectly, that doesn't mean you suppressed your chakra level to that of a squirrel. I bet that teacher knows you're here right now."

Naruto blinked and looked at Denkou. "Do you think he knows about you?"

Denkou shook his head, "Na. I specialized in three things when I was a shinobi. Assassination, front line combat, and Heavy combat. Assassination was my passion but I was much better at being powerful, not stealthy." He looked at Naruto and smirked, "But I was still the best at being stealthy."

Naruto smiled, "No wonder you can sneak up on me so well. You scare the shit out of me every time you do it."

Denkou chuckled but didn't say anything. The two of them watched the students. Denkou knew in one month of taijutsu training Naruto could easily defeat all of these students. Naruto had a determination that always pushed him farther. Even if he only knew the kid for two months, he was able to read that much from him anyway.

Naruto was content on watching the students, though his eyes constantly drifted to Sakura and her butt. Naruto smiled softly. Ah, the joys of the female anatomy.

Naruto watched her, and saw her send many glances off into an entirely different direction, which he followed with his eyes. At the end of her glances was Uchiha Sasuke. Naruto couldn't help but feel a growl emerge from his throat.

Denkou looked over at Naruto curiously, after hearing the growl. "What is it?"

Naruto didn't take his eyes off of Sasuke, but responded. "Sasuke…."

Denkou followed Naruto's glare and looked at the boy. He was wearing a blue shirt with a higher collar and white shorts. Strange white arm…warmers….things were on his arms and the boy himself just radiated self-confidence. Denkou didn't see anything special about the boy. He was just a normal teena- oh he turned around so his back was facing them.

He raised an eyebrow when he saw the fan on his back. An Uchiha huh? He narrowed his eyes, so this is the one Itachi had decided to let live…? Denkou peeked back at Naruto, who was seething.

Did Naruto truly hate this kid that much? Denkou smirked, stowing away this little piece of information inside, planning on using it to motivate Naruto to work twice as hard.

Denkou slapped Naruto's arm and jerked his head in a different direction, "Come on, lets get some Ichiraku ramen and head home. I already have all of your gear and other crap. We'll visit again soon."

Naruto grinned, completely forgetting about Sasuke and jumped down from the tree and started yelling running towards the ramen stand. Denkou blinked as a few students looked at Naruto in shock and confusion, most of their thoughts based on, how the hell did he get in the training ground? Denkou chuckled and left, still very well hidden.

He followed Naruto to the stand, listening to him talk about random subjects, most of it involving ramen. He, himself, winked at a few cute women walking down the streets.

When the two of them got to Ichiraku ramen, they sat down. Naruto grinned and took a huge whiff of the fresh ramen they were smelling.

"Hello and welcome to Ichiraku Ramen! How may I help you?"

Denkou blinked as a rather attractive young woman leaned against the counter, the only thing separating the kitchen and the dining area, and smiled brightly at them.

Naruto grinned and pulled down his mask, "Hey Ayame-chan! Start me off with 5 bowls of miso ramen, please!"

Ayame blinked and looked at Naruto, she smiled very happily, and ran around the counter to give Naruto a hug.

"Ah! Naruto-kun! It's so great to see you! You haven't been here in forever."

Naruto scratched the back of his neck sheepishly, "Yeah well I've been…busy."

Ayame could see that he didn't really want to talk about it so she smiled and kissed him on the cheek, earning a very confused look from Naruto.

"Well, we missed you here at the stand, I'm glad you're back."

Naruto smiled at the display of affection, fighting down (And doing a really good job of) a blush from tinting his cheeks at the kiss.

Naruto hesitated however, "Well, I'm just visiting. I'm not really _back_ back. But I am…kind of back? Do you get what I mean?"

Naruto scratched the back of his neck again, trying to find the right words to tell her this without breaking rule three. Ayame looked confused, but nodded at Naruto.

"Naruto-kun you don't have to explain. If you don't want to tell me, or if you can't, I understand. I'm just happy to see you."

Naruto smiled at her, glad he didn't have to say anything, but before he could respond, Denkou spoke up.

"I'm training him for the next two years out of Konoha. I'll let him visit whenever he can."

Naruto looked at Denkou, shocked. "I thought you said you didn't want anyone knowing you were training me!"

Denkou shot one Naruto one of his sincere smiles, "Naruto, I can tell these people mean a lot to you. I just don't want any bad people to find out about this…do you know what I mean?"

Both Naruto and Ayame nodded, and to which, Ayame took her thumb and pointer finger and made a zipping motion over her closed mouth, twisted it, and threw the 'key' over her shoulder.

She smiled at both of them and Denkou relaxed slightly. Naruto grinned, "So Ayame-chan! How bout those delicious ramen, eh?"

Ayame perked up instantly, "Of course! And you sir, would like…" She shot Denkou a questioning look.

Denkou smiled and stood up, holding out his hand. "The name's Murasaki Denkou. And I'll have one pork ramen."

Ayame smiled at him and shook his hand. "Coming right up! I'll let Tou-san bring out the food to you, Naruto-kun. You know, let it be a surprise…"

She shot Naruto a wink as she left into the kitchen. Denkou turned to Naruto and gave him a sly look, "So…..Ayame-chan, eh?"

Naruto blushed and nudged Denkou in the side, "Oh shut up. We're just friends."

Denkou chuckled, "Whatever you say, Naruto-_kun_."

He let it drop but laughed a little bit more at Naruto's increased blush, which he fought down very well. A moment later, Teuchi, the owner, came back later, holding a tray of 6 bowls. His eyes were closed as he happily said to his two customers.

"Thank you for ordering at Ichiraku's Ramen Stand! I hope you come by again!"

He opened his eyes to give the food to the customers, but instead saw an amused look on a man he's never seen before, and a grinning face of Naruto.

Teuchi gave a very broad smile, "Ah! Naruto, my boy!"

He also went around the counter to give Naruto a big hug, which he complied easily. Denkou looked amused as he watched the two. Teuchi went back to behind the counter and smiled at the two.

"I'm guessing the five miso ramen are for Naruto, here. So your's must be the pork! I'm sorry but I never did catch your name…"

Denkou smiled, amused at the friendliness these people had. "Murasaki Denkou."

Teuchi blinked and shook the younger man's hand who was in the process of sitting down now. "As in…. _THE_ Murasaki Denkou?"

Denkou blinked and looked at Teuchi, realizing that he was old enough to really realize who he was. He nodded, but put a single finger up to his lips to do a 'shh' thing. And jerked his head towards Naruto, who was too engrossed in his ramen to know what was going on.

"Don't tell Naruto."

A sad yet stern expression came across Teuchi's face. He nodded, "What are you to Naruto?"

Naruto heard his name the second time and looked up. Denkou chuckled, "I'm his sensei."

Teuchi smiled and patted Denkou on the shoulder, "Welcome to the Ramen Family Denkou."

Denkou smiled and shook his head, muttering his breath, "This is why I became a civilian. Everything is so much easier."

Naruto watched as Denkou ate his ramen in silence. Both Teuchi and Ayame in the kitchen working on…things. Naruto looked forward, finishing his second bowl and starting on the third.

Denkou was the strangest man he'd ever talk to. He was strong. That much Naruto already knew about the man. He said that he was a teammate to the Yondaime. Some of his stories from when he was younger made Naruto smile. The two of them were best of friends.

But whenever Denkou said the Yondaime's name, _real_ name, Namikaze Minato…he said it with such distaste that Naruto knew something happened between the two of them that Denkou had repressed for years and years.

Naruto knew that Denkou preferred to hide his pain, much like Naruto. But those unique purple eyes….Naruto could see the pain. He was very nostalgic. It was almost depressing. Naruto knew that whenever Denkou had gone into his study, all he did was drink and drink. Naruto always had advanced senses and he could smell the sake threw the door. Naruto wanted to know so much about him.

He had the strangest connection with him. Naruto never lived with anyone his whole life. He lived in an orphanage for half his life, true, but he never lived with any of those people there. He tried to avoid them. But Denkou was…caring. Naruto told him about the treatment of the villagers, and Denkou actually listened to him.

He was one of the few people that listened to the blonde. During training he listened to Naruto complaints, but would always smile and get lost on memory lane. Naruto might not be the smartest kid around but he could definitely tell that something incredibly tragic had happened in Denkou's like some point in time.

Naruto knew Denkou never 'retired'. He just plain, flat-out quit. Due to some form of accident.

Naruto finished his fifth bowl of ramen, not realizing he drifted away in thought. Naruto peeked a glance at Denkou who was sipping a small glass of sake. Naruto frowned. He may have only known the man for a couple months. But Naruto felt this really odd connection to him. He wondered if this is what it felt like to have…a father.

Naruto smiled into his ramen. He liked the feeling. Naruto made a silent promise to himself, that with Naruto's strength that he'll get, He was going to protect his 'dad'. with his life. Naruto smiled sadly, He promised himself.

Naruto finished up with his ramen and patted his stomach. He sent a grin towards Denkou, who smiled at Naruto. He stood up and stretched.

"Ready to go?"

Naruto nodded, and pulled up the mask. Adjusting it so it fit comfortably around his face. Denkou fished for his money and placed a hefty amount on the counter. Teuchi and Ayame came by to pick up the money.

The two Ichiraku's watched as Denkou talked to Naruto about their training they'll have in the future. They knew Naruto said something, because Denkou suddenly threw his head back and let out a hearty laugh, his hand wrapping around Naruto's shoulder's fatherly-like. Naruto grinned at the older man.

Ayame cast a glance at her father, "I'm really glad for Naruto-kun."

Teuchi gave a very soft smile, "It's about time someone participated in Naruto's life. I think that Denkou guy is a very good father figure for Naruto…"

Ayame picked up the ryo and blinked, "Tou-san…he left way more than he should have!" she gestured to the money.

Teuchi blinked, "Why…this is at least three times the amount he had to pay…"

Ayame smiled, happily. The two of them watching as Denkou turned the corner, their last image of them was Denkou ruffling Naruto's hair. "I like him, Tou-san…"

Teuchi smiled and nodded, "Yeah. I do too Yame-chan." Then he narrowed his eyes and pointed his ramen spoon at Ayame, "But don't get any ideas! Always remember! Boys are from the devil!"

Ayame giggled and patted her father's shoulder, "I've gotta grow up sometime, daddy."

Teuchi grumbled. "You ain't gotta grow up never."

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A/N

Second Chapter!

It's like one here. Awesome. I was dedicated. LOL!

Well anyway, I'm tired, I have to pee, and I thought I did a really good job starting off the actual character development between Naruto and Denkou. I also really love the Ichiraku's and I always imagined them to have a deeper relationship with Naruto than what the manga/anime/ and/or other fanfics describe between them. I feel like it's very important to incorporate those feeling between Naruto and them.

Well anyway, this girl is gonna hit the sack! Goodnight!

Ja'Ne

11-Tailed Demon Wolf


	3. Chapter 3

Yo, third chapter! Starting it the same day my chapter 2 got up. Listening to some Sungha Jung…I think I'm prepared…

**Suna's Fire Fox**

"Speaking"

"_Thoughts" _

_Flashbacks_

"**Demon/Summon speaking"**

"_**Demon/Summon thoughts"**_

**Jutsu name or Jutsu**

Disclaimer: I own nothing but a car.

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Denkou and Naruto returned to their little, not really, private valley. Naruto kept on all of his clothes, even the mask, and was watching Denkou set up training dummies randomly all over the entire makeshift training ground. At first the blonde-haired boy was highly confused at where Denkou put all of those straw dummies…until he unsealed them from a scroll.

Denkou sat down in front of Naruto, sipping on a bottle of sake. Naruto stared. Denkou shot him a look, "Naruto, from today on, your real training begins. I'm not going to lie, it'll probably be harder than the training you had before this…"

Naruto gulped, the training before was hell for Naruto. If this training was harder….Naruto shuddered. He didn't even want to think about it. Denkou saw Naruto's look, and decided he should give Naruto a little bit of good news.

"But the good news, is that now you start to get strong. Truly strong. For this first year, I'll be teaching you taijutsu, and ninjutsu. We'll work that weapon throwing crap also. I hate doing that, but I do admit, having perfect aim with your shuriken and kunai do come in handy."

Naruto felt a little bit of excitement enter his body. He grinned and stood up, "Well what are we waiting for then!"

Denkou pulled out a small white blank card from behind his back. Naruto, by then, was quite used to Denkou pulling out items from behind his back magically. He grinned at Naruto.

"Well first before I teach you any sort of taijutsu, we have to find out your chakra affinity."

Naruto blinked and watched Denkou stand up, towering over the blue eyed boy. "Chakra affinity?"

Denkou nodded, "Yeah, you see. A chakra affinity is the element your body has adapted to and can use to it's fullest potential. Many people who master their elemental chakra can create the element with out the use of a jutsu. Mine, is lightning. Like earlier in our training, you did notice that I could shoot bolts of lightning at you correct?"

Naruto glared at him, "How could I not notice?"

Denkou smirked, "Good. Well, me and the Yondaime, Minato, created a very unique taijutsu style that can and should be one of the most deadly. There are two forms of this style, one that incorporates your elemental chakra, and the other doesn't. I suggest only using the your elemental chakra when you're fighting enemies."

Naruto nodded, soaking up the information. It was something he never heard of before and he was really interested.

Denkou smiled at Naruto. "Naruto, the style I'm going to teach you uses counterattacks, and your opponents momentum against them, it is a very rare taijutsu style, and there are virtually no styles the counter this style."

Naruto's eyes lit up at the thought of such an awesome taijutsu style, but then frowned, "Wait, how can there be no counter attack to it? I mean, every taijutsu is beatable…right?"

Denkou laughed out loud, in his mind congratulating Naruto. "Good, good very good. Yes, you're right. Every taijutsu style does have a weakness, but this one is very hard to figure out. I'm still not sure what's its weakness is. It's not like my enemy has told me before. But let me ask you something Naruto…how do you counter attack, a counter attack?"

Naruto frowned, unsure of how to answer. He shrugged. Denkou continued his explanation of the taijutsu style, "You see Naruto, besides the elemental chakra in the style, there are two different ways of using this style to fight your opponent. One is the counter attack way. And the other is purely offensive.

"Every start of a fight, you'll have to go on the offensive, making your opponent think that the way to defeat you, is to make you go on the defensive. Which it really doesn't matter what they decided to do, attack you or keep defending, either way. The taijutsu style does deadly damage. But when they go on the offensive and force you to be on defensive, that's when you look really awesome."

Naruto leaned back on one leg and put his hands behind his head, really interested in what Denkou was saying. The black haired man continued talking. "The basics of the defensive style is to be able to predict where you are going to get hit by an attack, and put a field of chakra in front of your body on that part of your body, as to protect yourself, and then you use the momentum your opponent has given you and use that against them. When you get into the more advanced katas of the style you can use your elemental chakra instead of a cushion of chakra."

Naruto nodded, understanding it. Denkou continued. "The offensive style is highly based off of your chakra element. Since mine is lightning, I focus on very fast strikes, in stead of power, and I focus on joints, and the weak spots of their body, and if I want to, add a burst of lightning to my strike to increase the pain and do damage internally and externally at the same time."

Naruto was literally bouncing on his feet, very excited to learn this. But once again he frowned, "What about the Uchiha? Or the Hyuga? Shouldn't they be able to hurt me? I mean especially the Hyuga with their weird…weirdness."

Denkou chuckled, "Well yeah, during fights you will get injured. It's apart of being a ninja. However the style itself, if you do it correctly, will lessen each blow considerably. If you fight an Uchiha, focus on the counter attacks more than the offensive. Their eyes may see the attack, but their body will be so wide open that they can't defend against a lightning infused punch to their ribs." At this part Denkou chuckled, slightly sadistically.

"But with the Hyuga…well you remember how I said we had Hyuga Hiashi on our team?" Naruto nodded, "Well, he was our guinea pig. He let us test it out against him, and he even helped us develop it so it's almost 90 percent Hyuga full proof."

Naruto tilted his head, "How?"

Denkou grinned, "Glad you asked! Well, one way is to simply use your counter attacking part, and use the chakra cushion to negate their chakra infused palms to do internal damage. Or the other way, which hurts them a hell of a lot more, is to sacrifice your own body and add your elemental chakra to your counter attack-ness. While the pure chakra negates their palm strikes but doesn't hurt them. The elemental chakra hurts them, but doesn't negate their palm strikes. You get it?"

Naruto thought for a second but slowly nodded, and then grinned. Denkou seemed to know exactly how Naruto's brain worked, because the way he said it was perfect for the way Naruto understood things.

Denkou shook his head, and held up the little white card again. "Well back on track. At least I got that explanation out of the way. Now, I want you to take this card," He handed the card to Naruto, "and pump some of your chakra into it. One of five things should happen. It should either crumple into a ball, and that means you have lightning for an affinity. Or it could split in half, for wind. Burn up, for fire. Get wet, for water. Or turn into dust, for rock."

Naruto did as he was told and pumped some of his chakra into it. Two things happened. One, it spit into two halves. And then it simultaneously burned the two halves of the split card. Denkou blinked in a little bit of shock. Naruto sent him a worried look.

"Was that supposed to happen? Which one am I? Wind or fire?"

Denkou smiled at Naruto but thought to himself, _"He has both of them? That almost never happens until you start training for the second element. Which only some Jonin attempt to do…"_ He grinned at the blonde, "Well you are both of them! Which is really good! But now it requires for us to take a little bit of time out so you can get used to using both wind and fire incorporated in your taijutsu style."

Naruto grinned. "Sensei…why doesn't it have a name? It gets troublesome if you keep saying 'your taijutsu style' or 'the style' or whatever…"

Denkou shrugged. "We just never came up with one before I guess. Since only he and I knew it…"

Naruto shrugged, accepting the answer. Denkou looked at Naruto, "One thing I want you to know about this style, is that while its primarily close range. It can be used in long distance and also maybe medium distance. But that all depends on the control you have over your element. Observe."

Denkou turned away from Naruto. He aimed his body towards a clear way to the mountain. Nothing in the way. He sent Naruto a smirk. He took two big leaps forward. A left, then a right. He used all of his momentum to throw a right handed punch towards the mountain. A huge streamline of lightning burst from his fist and shot towards the mountain. An explosion that made Naruto cover his eyes and take a step back to brace himself from the after shock occurred right when the lightning hit the mountain.

Naruto dropped his hand from in front of his eyes and looked at the spot where the lightning had hit with something akin to shock and awe. When the smoke cleared away, the mountain now sported a gaping hole. It was as wide as Denkou was tall and but only about a foot deep. Denkou shot Naruto a smirk.

"With practice, fire and even wind _might_ be able to do that. But lightning is still way better."

Naruto hardly heard what his sensei had just said and instead focused on recovering from his shock of such a powerful….punch…? Naruto shook his head. Denkou turned towards Naruto again.

"While doing stuff looks really cool, the farther out you send your elemental chakra the more taxing it is on your reserves. It would just be better if you used a jutsu to reach that far, which I plan on teaching you many jutsu of all the elements to benefit you."

Naruto nodded.

Denkou nodded and pointed a little bit away from himself, "Okay, not stand over there and I'll begin teaching you how to counter attack first."

Naruto did as he was told, and Denkou smirked. In a blur of motion Denkou shot forward, and sent a punch straight towards Naruto's chest. Naruto tried to dodge, unsure of how to go about counter attacking that. Denkou was too fast for Naruto to dodge, so he took a direct hit to his chest and was sent sprawling across the ground.

Naruto felt the air leave him, and pain replace it. He rolled to his side, gasping for breath. He saw a shadow tower over his body. He recovered his breath and sat up, nervous about how his sensei was going to react. He looked up at Denkou nervously and saw a look of severe disappointment. Ignoring the look, Naruto stood up and got into a fighting stance. Ready to take Denkou on again.

Denkou's expression turned serious, and he attacked Naruto again, in the same spot. This time, Naruto thought quickly and formed a cushion, as his sensei described to him, of chakra where he thought Denkou was going to hit him, and focused chakra into his feet at the same time to let him stick to the ground.

The punch came, and landed exactly where Naruto predicted it would go. He hardly felt the punch at all, but he did feel his body tilt backwards towards the ground. When Naruto felt like he was at a point where he would continue downward and not outward, he released his feet and kicked one of them up towards Denkou's chin, using some back handspring-type movement.

Naruto's kick missed it's mark horribly, but he managed to continue his back handspring to bring himself back to his feet and balanced. He scowled at his miss, but Denkou smirked.

"Well you seem to learn quicker through pain. That was very good, only you missed and all of your actions were awkward and clumsy. Be more relaxed and flexible. The more you do things like this, the better you'll be at it. You just need to practice to get your grace."

Naruto nodded, his sensei wasn't too bad. While Naruto thought his taijutsu training was supposed to be much harder than what it was already. He was sure that he could handle this. Denkou smirked and attacked the unprepared Naruto, going for his knee joint.

A loud pop and a scream followed Denkou's attack. Which was healed almost moments later, with much cursing from Naruto's end, and they continued the taijutsu training again.

This continued for almost three hours.

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Naruto lied on the ground, his body tired and aching. His bastard sensei probably had broken every joint in his body. But thanks to his fox he was able to heal with in moments and continue his gruesome training. Let's just say Naruto never made the same mistake twice. While he knew this was only the beginning of his training, he felt like he progressed nicely in the small amount of time Denkou taught him the counter attack version of the style.

Denkou pulled Naruto to his feet, despite Naruto's protests and grunts of pain. He smirked at Naruto and handed him a canteen of water. Naruto grabbed it and gulped down all of it. He handed it back to Denkou when it was empty and Denkou smirked. He threw it too the side.

"Well, I'd say that you did pretty good for the first time training with the counter attack version of the style. But it could have been better. That'll come with practice and training."

Naruto grunted, wanting to curse this asshole that called himself his teacher, but refrained from doing so to avoid possible damage and more pain to his body.

Denkou smiled. "Well now we are going to teach you how to use the offensive version of the style. This part requires you to basically become _one_ with the element that you choose to imitate. Its vital to the style. While you don't necessarily have to attack using your element, you still must act like you are fire, or wind, or lightning."

Naruto nodded, getting the basics of what Denkou was trying to say to him. Denkou continued. "So for now, the way I fight is based off of how lightning 'acts'. I use very quick and fast jabs, and attacks. I'll move spastically and randomly, never attacking the same place twice. Like lightning, eh?"

Naruto nodded again, getting impatient. He wanted Denkou to explain how he fought with wind or fire, dammit! Denkou ignored his impatience though.

"Now with wind and fire its pretty different. Both of those elements hold a speed and grace to it. More so for wind than fire, ne? When people think of wind they think of two things. First is a gentle breeze, which is where the grace comes from. And the second is a devastating tornado, which is where the speed comes from. Now for fire, people think of either a campfire which is controlled, precise, and graceful. Or they think of a forest fire. Destroying all things in it's path, quickly catching fire to everything and will attack the same area over and over again until it crumbles into ashes."

Naruto nodded. Denkou continued. "So to become wind, you'll have to be fast, and graceful. And to become fire, you have to be ruthless, and devastating. When fighting an opponent, both are very hard to defeat or to even stand against. So shall we begin?

"For the next couple hours, you'll be attacking me on the offensive side of the taijutsu style. I'll tell you what you need to adjust to, to allow yourself to become one with your element better. If you don't seem to understand what I'm telling you, I'll just beat the shit out of you until you understand, kay?"

Naruto gulped but grinned, "Well what are we waiting for?"

He ran a little bit away from Denkou and waited for him to start the fight. Denko, however, stood there hands on his hips and he looked amused. Naruto scowled at him, "What?"

Denkou chuckled, "Well which element are you going to start with?"

Naruto shrugged, not giving it any thought. "Fire I guess, it sounds so much cooler."

Denkou chuckled at Naruto. And waved for him to attack him. The blonde-haired boy didn't need to be told twice and he jumped at the purpled eyed 'bastard'. Naruto cocked back his fist and was about throw a punch, when Denkou grabbed his arm and twisted it behind his back painfully. Naruto gasped as pain shot up his arm.

Denkou scowled at Naruto, "Now, now. Come one Naruto. That strike would have been either have gone straight or you would have fallen towards the ground if I had stepped to the side. How does fire attack? Haven't you ever heard of 'heat rising'? Now when you attack like fire. Attack so you're body movement will end up going up. You know uppercuts, kicks, and other things like that."

He released Naruto's arm who flexed it a few times to get the pain out of it. Naruto glared at him, and muttered a few things under his breath. Denkou glared at Naruto, "You get it brat?"

Naruto frowned and got into a relaxed fighting stance, "Yeah, yeah I get it."

This fighting continued well over two hours. Denkou consistently gave Naruto advice on how to 'act more like fire'. Naruto kept getting beat into the ground, but he would always stand up and try to learn more from his sensei.

After taijutsu, the two of them had dinner, Denkou saying that after dinner he would teach Naruto a jutsu. Which at that Naruto jumped up and glomped the man, excited that he finally got to learn a jutsu. Denkou also explained to Naruto that over the next few months, their training schedule will go like this. Counter attack taijutsu in the morning, and then after that a split combination of fire and wind offensive taijutsu. Then they would take a lunch break. After lunch, Denkou will teach Naruto a jutsu and force him to be proficient at it by the end of the day. And for the next few days he wouldn't teach Naruto another jutsu until he learned how to use the jutsu in all kinds of situations, and until he mastered it. Then he would teach the blonde a new jutsu. Over all, Naruto was very happy with his training.

A few days turned into weeks, and a few weeks turned into months. Before Naruto knew it a year had gone by. And before Naruto knew it, Denkou was teaching him to use the sword styles. Which Naruto realized why he had him wait another year to use a sword.

The sword style was exactly like the taijutsu style only, without the counter attack part. He just learned that he had to do a lot of twisting and dodging. That allowed him to dodge Denkou's attacks, and attempt to land a hit on Denkou.

One thing that frustrated Naruto greatly beyond everything else in the world, was that Denkou was like a ghost in battle. Naruto found it virtually impossible to land a hit on him. Or even touch him, for that fact. But despite Naruto's many injuries, and the small fact of not being able to hit Denkou, the blue-eyed boy felt like he was improving greatly.

Denkou agreed with that. The purple eyed man was very surprised to see Naruto's natural talent he had with the sword. It was almost scary. Naruto constantly had said to him though, that he had liked using taijutsu better, but after Denkou told Naruto that he was almost twice as good at using the sword then he was at taijutsu, Naruto had claimed that he would only use his sword if he was aiming to kill his opponent.

One lesson that was particularly rough on Naruto was the lesson about survival. Naruto had to learn the hard way of the old saying 'kill or be killed' which Denkou had told him that he could think about it in the light of 'survival of the fittest.' Naruto didn't say much for the next few days after that, but when he did confront Denkou about it, he said that he won't kill unless he had too. He didn't want to like killing, but he'd do it none the less.

Denkou had merely smiled and told Naruto that a ninja can kill and not be a monster, but when a ninja kills and relishes in killing. That's when they become the true demon.

The black haired man had tried for a couple months to teach Naruto the mental part of being a shinobi. Making his opponent underestimate him, or how to set up a strategy with only certain people. He made Naruto choose decisions that a Kage would have had to make, and he quizzed Naruto on many moral subjects. He taught Naruto unspoken rules of being a shinobi, ones that mainly focused on the morals of the ninja life. One of Naruto's favorites was…

"Those who abandon the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are lower than trash."

Thus, Naruto's nindo was born. 'I'll give my life to protect my precious people if necessary! And that's a promise!'

Denkou couldn't help but shed a tear at how much Naruto sounded like himself and Minato when they were younger.

Not only had Denkou taught Naruto skill in battle, the man had took it upon himself to teach Naruto the basic mannerisms of life, itself. He taught Naruto how to cook, how to play some sort of instrument, despite Naruto's complaints of it being 'girly' and he taught Naruto the ways of the women. Naruto was very educated in the last part in particular, Denkou would always get carried away.

Naruto had decided that he would keep his goggles look only replace them with a pair of black ones instead. Claiming that black goes better with orange than green. Naruto loved the mask look also, and despite Denkou's pleas, he had also decided to keep an orange color in is new 'look'.

So now, two years later, the duo were walking into the village, prepared to get Naruto's new hitai-ate, and to go shopping for Naruto's new clothing. Naruto was wearing the exact same clothes he had been for the past two years only, they were very worn and patched up all over, showing the training Naruto had put in.

The only difference that Naruto had, besides his skills and his physical growth, was the black sword that was strapped to Naruto's back. Naruto treasured this sword. Denkou had given it to him as a 14th birthday gift. He had told Naruto that it used to be his when he was a shinobi, and that it meant a lot to Naruto.

He later explained the many special things about the sword to Naruto. The sword itself, had a rare combination of very flexible obsidian metal and black tempered steel melted down and mixed together, creating a very stable, but flexible black blade. It glowed almost mystically due to the obsidian. But due to the combination, it didn't need to be sharpened.

He also explained to Naruto that there were several seals put into the blade, that allowed it to flow chakra threw it much easier than any other weapon. It was made to fight with the elemental chakra. Naruto loved everything about the sword. Which Denkou had explained that it was a scimitar.

It blade itself was a pure black but glittered, almost, in the presence of the tiniest bit of light. The handle was made to only fit one hand on it, and it had a custom made curve to the handle to make it comfortable to hold. It had a slight curve in front of the hand guard for the forefinger to rest, allowing much more wrist movement for the sword user.

(A/N: to see an image of the sword, go to my profile.)

Naruto had almost cried at given such a gift by his sensei. The man shrugged and said it was no big deal.

Now back to the two of civilians. We, as in me(the writer) and you(the reader) spaced out far too long, so we missed their trip from the valley to the Hokage's office. Not very eventful, but now we find them in front of the door, both excited for Naruto.

Denkou knocked, smiling in the process. The unexplainable pride he had for the boy right now was basically luminous. He couldn't contain it. He took a peek at Naruto, who was bouncing back and forth between each foot. A muffled, 'enter' was the signal for the two of them to go in.

Sarutobi looked up as his door opened to see the masked blonde walk in first, followed by the purple eyed man. Denkou was back in his khaki's and black shirt, while Naruto was wearing the same thing as always whenever the Hokage visited the two of them. Which was only last week.

He smiled and stood up, "Ah, Naruto-kun, Denkou-kun. It's good to see you so soon again. So I'm guessing you're here for Naruto's exam?"

They both nodded, Naruto took a step forward and did a thumbs down at the Sandaime, grinning under his mask.

"Bitch please! This exam is going to be easy as shit! It's going down!"

Hiruzen sent an eyebrow towards Denkou, disappointed in his abilities to NOT break Naruto of his vulgar language. Denkou shrugged, not really caring about Naruto's language.

Sarutobi looked back at Naruto and smiled, "Well good news Naruto. I know it's customary for me to give you a genin exam, but I've seen your skills. It would be a waste of time to give you the test. And personally I don't feel like doing it." Denkou grinned, Naruto jumped up and fist pumped, Sarutobi coughed to get their attention again. They looked at him.

"I'll give you your hitai-ate, and I'll complete the paperwork that'll officially make you a shinobi, but in an hour or two you'll have to come back to get your picture taken for the personal records of Konoha. I'm guessing you're going to go shopping in that time…?"

Naruto nodded, "Hell yeah, I can't wear these rags around now that I'm a ninja Oji-san. But do you think you can give me that hitai-ate so I can go get my new clothes? I'd really like it in black…"

Sarutobi chuckled, while lighting some tobacco in his pipe, he took a drag as he looked for the hitai-ate that he had specially made for Naruto. He took it out and tossed it to Naruto, who blinked.

The main color of the cloth was black, but bright orange Uzumaki swirl marks were scattered randomly around the entire thing. The metal plate was perfect, not a single blemish. Naruto chuckled at the orange swirls, and Denkou rolled his eyes. Naruto nodded to Hiruzen.

"Thanks Oji-san. I really like it, but I'll put it on once it I get my new outfit. I'll see you in a little bit Oji-san!" with that Naruto ran out of the office. Denkou shot him a look.

"Why did you have to encourage him? Orange? Really?"

Sarutobi chuckled, taking another drag from his pipe. "A little orange doesn't hurt anyone Denkou-kun."

Denkou scoffed, "Saru-ji-san, that little bit of orange is going to turn into a lot. And a lot of orange hurts….my eyes that is." Denkou chuckled and shook his head, sending a small wave to the Hokage as he walked out of the office.

"See ya soon, Saru-ji-san."

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The two of them were walking down the streets of Konoha, heading towards one of the most expensive ninja store in town. Naruto wasn't worried about being thrown out any longer, his mask covered everything that the villagers hated, and recognized about him. And Denkou wasn't worried about the price because he was filthy stinkin rich!

As the two of them entered it, the store greeter bowed and welcomed them, she then told them about the sales and discounts for the day, which they ignored. They went to the men's side of the store and started looking at things.

Denkou went and waited by the fitting rooms, keeping his promise to Naruto about letting him pick the clothes. He sighed in frustration as Naruto slowly took a huge stack of clothes into the fitting rooms. Denkou sat down on the floor, and leaned against the wall. It took Naruto almost a half an hour to come out. He was grinning like an idiot. Denkou shot him an annoyed glance.

"I found the one I'm going to be wearing."

Denkou raised an eyebrow. Naruto was the Anbu styled black pants, tucked into the strange shin high shinobi sandals. A black shin guard was over top of Naruto's shins. Naruto's hitai-ate was in the loop holes around the waist of the pants, acting as a belt. A skin tight, Underarmor, bright orange shirt was on Naruto's chest. It stopped at his elbows. Naruto's well toned abs and chest would have been showing if not for the Anbu styled chest armor he wore. It was a pure black. Naruto opted to wear black fingerless gloves on his hands, a metal plate with a swirl engraved on the back. He had a pitch black cloak on his shoulders with a thick leather braided strip attaching it to his shoulders. Slightly hiding the orange. The cloak had a hood on the back in case Naruto needed to hide in the shadows.

On Naruto's face was a pure black mask, just like the one he wore before…only newer. Naruto's bright blue eyes were showing for the world too see his grin underneath. On his forehead was a pair of black snowboarding goggles with a grey stretch band. The protective screen was a pitch black, reflecting no light, but also, somehow, didn't make anything darker to Naruto when he wore them. They were a little smaller than the average snowboarding goggles, just enough to cover his eyes. They didn't look bulky on his forehead as he wore them.

Naruto did a 360 turn, grinning. "Do I look good? Or do I look good?"

Denkou scoffed and rolled his eyes, "Why on earth do you wear those goggles? I mean come on?"

Naruto chuckled, "I told you many times already! When I use my **Kaze Naminori **(Wind Surfing) I sometimes go so fast that the wind makes my eyes water and I can't see where I'm going. That and several of my new jutsu's that I'm creating require my body to be fully covered. Or face many burns."

He wiggled his eyebrows. He loved keeping his jutsu's secret from Denkou. And when he revealed them when they sparred, he always got super excited after he used them. Denkou couldn't but sigh. He had taught Naruto a seal that prevented all of his clothes from getting burned by fire techniques ever since Naruto destroyed a set of clothes from a fire technique. Now Naruto places that seal over all his clothes, and he has a nasty habit of setting himself on fire during spars to further injure Denkou….

Denkou stood up. "Yeah, you look great. I was expecting a little bit more orange and not so much black. You almost look emo…"

Naruto glared at him, "It's so I can sneak around at night. After all, you were the one who taught me to be so stealthy. You said so yourself that if my hair was covered, you'd never had even known I was sneaking around during our early morning spars."

Denkou chuckled and ruffled Naruto's hair, who scowled underneath his mask. "You're just a little cutie. Trying to impress the ladies so early."

Naruto shrugged, "Whatever gets them, right?"

Denkou smiled at Naruto, still very glad that he kept his side bangs out ever since that one day….and with his whiskers covered….he shook his head. Naruto's hair and eyes were an exact replication of the Yondaime's and that's where the similarities ended.

Denkou paid for 10 or 15 more sets of the entire outfit, not caring how much it cost. After a small wave to the check out girl, the two of them walked back to the Hokage tower, talking about random nonsense.

Upon entering the tower, they walked up to the office and entered, not bothering to knock. Sarutobi looked up from his paper work as the duo entered his office. He raised a white eyebrow.

"It's only polite to knock…."

Naruto waved him off, "Since when have I ever been respectful, Oji-san? Seriously…"

Sarutobi stood up and had the photographer enter the office, "Naruto this is the photographer, he'll be taking your picture."

Naruto's eyes brightened, "Oh! Oi, sensei, what should I do? Should I make like peace sign? Or cover my whole face or what?"

A slow grin crept across Denkou's face as he leaned down and whispered something in Naruto's ear, whose face split into a grin also. Sarutobi felt his stomach sink at the duel grins he was receiving. The photographer gave them a bored yet impatient look.

"Please Uzumaki-san. Sit down so I can take your picture."

Naruto sat down and kept a serious face, Hiruzen now knew that Naruto was planning something drastic. He half expected Naruto to drop his pants and moon the camera, but he knew that Naruto wouldn't be stupid enough to do that….would he?

The photographer set up the proper positioning, and looked at Naruto.

"I'm going to count down to 1. I'll take the picture on 1, okay? 3..."

Naruto kept still.

"2."

Naruto didn't' move still and Hiruzen felt like Naruto wasn't even going to do something.

"1."

At the last second Naruto brought his hand up and flipped the camera off, giving the biggest grin under his mask. Blue eyes were still open and were able to see the camera, though they were squinted a great deal due to his foxy grin.

Hiruzen sighed, while Denkou just chuckled. Sarutobi shot Denkou a dark glare, who just shrugged, still chuckling. The photographer scoffed, "I hope you like your picture, Uzumaki-san…I'm not redoing it."

Naruto grinned and jumped out of the chair. "Of course I like it! That's why I did it!"

The man left and Sarutobi glared at the two civilians…well one civilian and one genin now…in front of him. He sighed, and sat down in his way-too-comfy awesome Hokage chair. He looked at Naruto.

"As you know Naruto, because of your special graduating circumstances, you wont be placed on a team. And really, the only person I believe to continue training you efficiently would be the man standing next to you. So now I officially place you under the apprenticeship of Murasaki Denkou."

Naruto didn't react. He wasn't entirely sure if he was supposed to feel any different about that. He fingered the hilt of his sword, which was now placed on his left hip. Denkou yawned, obviously bored. Sarutobi felt his eyebrow twitch at the two of them.

"Today, Naruto, you and Denkou will meet up with the other 9 rookie genin. They all passed their genin test about a week and a half ago. And since they all know each other, it's only right for them to know you are also a rookie genin."

Naruto scowled at the term 'rookie genin'. It made it seem like he was worthless. Denkou shrugged, "When are we supposed to meet them?"

The Hokage looked at the clock on his wall and smirked, "Oh about…..now."

Denkou blinked and then shot a glare at the Hokage, who was smiling innocently. Naruto laughed a little.

"Where are they?"

"At the academy. Their in their graduating room. I believe you two know where that was." Hiruzen said, answering Denkou's question.

Denkou nodded and grabbed Naruto by the back of his new cloak. They both gave a small wave to Sarutobi and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

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They both reappeared in front of the door they new they had to go threw to meet the rest of the genin. Denkou smiled at Naruto, who looked a little nervous.

"Ready?"

Naruto shrugged, "As I'll ever be…I guess."

Denkou turned the knob and walked in, he blinked when he saw the scene in front of him. Naruto copying his actions when he entered the room also. Unsure of what to make of it.

The three rookie sensei were standing off towards the side, having a conversation. Denkou recognized two of them. One of them being Minato's student. Hatake Kakashi. Another being Saru-ji-san's son, Sarutobi Asuma. The third jonin, he didn't recognize but couldn't help but admire her. Wavy raven black hair, and wine red eyes. Her lips, he knew she didn't have any lipstick on, were a nice red color. His eyes scanned the rest of her body, nodding in approval. He wasn't exactly sure how to describe the clothing she was wearing, but he could tell from her aura that she deserved to be jonin.

Naruto however, had much more of a scene to take in then Denkou. Sasuke was sitting way off to the side, away from the others. Ino and Sakura sitting on either side of him, simply staring at his face, blushing. Naruto's eyebrow twitched at that little fact. He recognized Nara Shikamaru and Akamichi Chouji sitting down at one of the desks watching as Inuzuka Kiba was yelling at a pale boy that Naruto has never seen before, with short straight black hair, and had a drawing book in his hand. Hyuga Hinata was trying to calm down Kiba, and the only person who seemed to realize he was even there was Aburame Shino…

Shino walked up to Naruto and held out a hand for him to shake, which Naruto did. "It's nice to meet you…."

Naruto cleared his throat, "Uh, Naruto… Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto could see Shino's eyebrow rise slightly behind his shades. "Naruto? I had thought that you dropped out a couple years back….it seems that I was wrong."

Naruto laughed awkwardly and scratched his cheek. Kiba finally noticed Shino talking to Naruto and made it known to the rest of the people gathered at the empty classroom.

"Hey, you're the new rookie?"

Naruto and Denkou blinked as a dozen pairs of eyes turned towards them, studying them. All conversation that had taken place abruptly stopped. They all were sizing them up. Naruto more so than Denkou. Denkou put his hands in his pockets, not caring what any of them thought about him really. Then someone broke the silence.

"Murasaki Denkou?"

Denkou looked at Kakashi, whose one visible eye was wider than usual, obviously not expecting him to show up. Denkou nodded, a bit awkwardly.

"Uh….yup."

Kakashi smiled, the only thing showing this was his upside down U shape as he walked forward to the two of them. "It's very good to see you again, Taichou."

Denkou blinked as Kakashi he shook Kakashi's hand. "No need to call me that Kaka-kun…"

Asuma walked up to him and shook his hand also smiling, the last jonin also came up. She shook his hand, smiling.

"So you're the famous Murasaki Denkou….huh?"

Denkou smiled, charmingly. He kissed the top of her hand, keeping his eyes locked with hers. "Well it seems like you know of me…. But I don't know of you."

Kakashi and Asuma chuckled, knowing Denkou's flirtatious side. The woman however smiled, a bit coldly, and took her hand back after he released it. "Yuhi Kurenai. Pleasure to meet you."

Denkou smiled again, "Pleasure's mine."

Naruto coughed, awkwardly as all the rookie genin gave the four sensei confused looks. Denkou smirked and nudged Naruto forward. Naruto coughed again and looked at the young ninja staring at him.

"Uh. Hi. My name is Uzumaki Naruto….and I'm one of the rookie genin. I guess."

Naruto watched the reactions go across each one of their faces. But he heard a snort of amusement come from Sasuke.

"A genin? 'You guess'? Didn't you drop out a couple years ago?"

Naruto grinned at him, "Well I never thought of myself as a 'rookie'. and yes. I dropped out of the academy, but that was so I could get some training. From this guy."

He jerked his thumb towards Denkou. Kiba grinned at him, "Hey man! It's nice to have you back."

He walked over to Naruto slapped him on the back, Akamaru barking his response under his hood. Naruto chuckled, "This is super awkward… and I don't know what I'm even supposed to say. Why don't we all go out to eat somewhere? Or something…"

Ino gave Naruto a skeptical look, "Where?"

Naruto grinned and looked at Denkou out of the corner of his eyes, who was rolling his eyes. "I know the perfect place…."

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"Hey Ayame-chan! Get me 5 larges of miso ramen please!"

Naruto and Denkou led the way to Ichiraku Ramen stand, talking and laughing about past experiences that no one but them knew about. The rest of the rookie genin whispered about Naruto, unsure whether or not he was strong. Sasuke really didn't care too much, but thought that if Naruto was good, he'd be a good sparring partner.

Once inside, Naruto plopped himself at the counter, Denkou sitting at the opposite side, next to Kurenai. Kakashi sat next to Naruto, and Sakura sat on the other side of Naruto, taking the seat next to Sasuke, with Ino on the other side of Sasuke.

However, Sakura looked at Naruto, interested in him, much to Naruto's happiness. "So, Naruto. What exactly have you been doing for the past two years?"

Naruto smiled at her, "Well… training, of course."

Sakura raised a thin eyebrow, "That's all?"

Naruto shrugged, "I guess, once you get to a point with training, it becomes a habit. Personally I never enjoyed training 'cause my sensei is a demented asshole who likes breaking my bones and electrocuting me, but I can't complain."

Sakura blinked and laughed awkwardly, not sure how she was supposed to respond to that. She looked down at Denkou who was trying to flirt with Kurenai, who was NOT flirting with him at all. Sakura let a small smile out as she looked back at Naruto.

"He really broke your bones? He doesn't look like the type of guy who would do that…"

Naruto laughed, "Almost everyday. And trust me, he may look nice outside of my training but when we begin…" He leaned towards her talking a little bit quieter. "He's a bastard from hell."

Sakura sent a polite smile to Naruto, still unsure how to react around him. Though she couldn't deny he seemed rather enjoyable, and not to mention he was cute. But she wanted to see what his face looked like. She couldn't remember his face from those years ago, she just remembered his name.

Naruto's attention was brought to the silver haired man sitting next to him, "So, Naruto….you were trained by Denkou, huh?"

Naruto smiled at him, "Yeah, he's a really good teacher. But I can honestly say that I hate him."

Kakashi chuckled and leaned over to Naruto, "Did he teach you the **chidori**? He asked me if he could teach it to his student. Which I really had no clue you were his student…"

Naruto frowned, remembering that day when he taught Naruto the **chidori**. "Yeah he taught it to me alright."

Kakashi lazily looked at Naruto. "But how? It really only works if someone has the Sharingan. The technique requires the user to move very fast, and at the speed it requires, it's virtually impossible to dodge a counter attack. Trust me…I've learned the hard way."

Naruto's eyes hardened slightly and he looked down the rest of the counter to see if anyone was listening. After deciding none of them were listening, he looked at Kakashi.

"Well the truth is, the day I was taken out of the academy, was the day the Kyuubi decided to show itself to me." At that sentence, Kakashi's eye widened. Naruto continued, ignoring the look. "He had pumped a whole lot of chakra into me, telling me to enjoy the 'power' he gave me. Which at the time I didn't even know about. Later, during training, me and Denkou found out that he gave me a bastardized version of the Byakugan and the Sharingan in one."

Once again, Kakashi's eye widened. Unsure of how to take it… he frowned, "What do you mean, 'bastardized'?"

Naruto shrugged, "He only gave me a few abilities from each bloodline, like the 360 thing from the Byakugan, and he gave me the 'shadow from the future' thing from the Sharingan. And that's all. Although I also think that everything slows down a little bit, but I could be making that up."

Kakashi felt his jaw drop a small amount. He shook his head, trying to wrap around that idea. "What's it look like?"

Naruto smiled, "My iris goes blood red, and I get a slitted pupil. Basically, it looks like Kyuubi's eye. I call it my Onigan."

Kakashi chuckled at the lack of creativity Naruto and/or Denkou put into the name of his eye. He smiled at Naruto, "Well then that explains you being able to learn the **chidori**."

Naruto smiled and looked at Kakashi, who was about ready to pull down his mask to slurp some noodles, they both looked at each other and grinned slightly, Kakashi nodded at him.

"I like the mask look you have going on."

Naruto grinned, "Likewise."

They both looked around to see if anyone was looking, no one was. Simultaneously they pulled down their masks and slurped a whole bunch of noodles down. Half of their bowls disappeared within a second. Just as quick they pulled up their masks and smiled.

They turned back to the rest of the ninja gathered and looked at their incredulous looks. Sakura jumped over to Naruto and started shaking him in frustration.

"How do you two do that? We've been trying to see his face for a couple weeks now!"

Naruto felt his eyes roll around in his head as Sakura stopped shaking him, he shook his head trying to regain his bearings but he saw Sasuke leaning forward to give a super secret….secret.

"We've taken it upon ourselves to make it a personal mission to see his face. We've tried everything."

Sasuke leaned back and nodded, completely serious. Naruto chuckled and waved his thumb back and forth between him and Kakashi.

"Us, mask-wearers hafta stick up for each other. If you want to see Kakashi's face, you'll have to go threw me. And I learned from the best."

Naruto smirked at Sasuke's and Sakura's look of disbelief. Kakashi gave him a subtle high-five under the table. Kakashi nodded, and waved a finger at the two of them.

"Yes, and if you wish to see Naruto-kun's face…you'll have to go threw me."

Naruto grinned happily, "So it's like a never ending loop of deception! You'll never see our faces!"

Naruto grinned at the two angered genin. To his surprise, he saw the rest of the rookie glaring at him, Sasuke turned to the rest of them and smirked.

"Let's say we all take that as a personal challenge. The Rookie 9 WILL see Uzumaki Naruto's and Hatake Kakashi's faces!"

Sasuke was met with a couple nods of agreement. Kiba pointed to the two of them, "You guys don' t stand a chance."

Ino smirked and draped one arm off of both her teammates, Shikamaru mumbled troublesome as he slurped down some noodles. Chouji looked confused. Ino just smiled at Naruto.

"Yeah, my team will get you two. Some point in time. Your body may be pretty hot, but if your face isn't cute, then your not worth the waste of time." she sent a wink to Naruto who was blinking. Unused to being flirted with.

He couldn't help but grin. While he may not have been flirted with much, he definitely wouldn't blush or be shy at the slightest compliment. Sakura pointed a finger at Naruto.

"You can bet your bottom dollar, Naruto-san, that Me and Sasuke-kun will do whatever it takes to see your face! I'm not too sure about Sai-san though."

Naruto blinked and looked back at the genin he had absolutely no memory of. So his name was Sai, huh? Naruto felt his eyes on him and turned to look at Sai. The pale boy was staring at him, and drawing. He looked down occasionally at his drawing. Then back at Naruto. Naruto laughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck, unsure of how to respond to that obvious….creepiness.

As time passed on at Ichiraku, the genin got to know Naruto separately. He could honestly say that he really liked talking to all of them. Although that Sai guy was really weird…Naruto shook his head as he said his goodbyes, and him and his sensei started walking back to their valley. Naruto looked back at the group and saw them walking away, laughing and talking. Naruto shook his head.

"We're the odd ones out….aren't we?"

Denkou had a slight pinkish color to his cheeks, he drank a little more than he should have at the stand. While he wasn't drunk, he was a little tipsy. He nodded at Naruto, draping one arm over his student's shoulders.

"I believe we are, Naruto-kun. I'm a civilian there, and you haven't seen them in two years. That puts us at a disadvantage."

Naruto sighed, but looked back up at his sensei. He smiled at him, and brought down the goggles on his forehead. He covered his eyes with the goggles, now anyone looking at him wouldn't be able to see a single facial feature on his face. Naruto looked at Denkou.

"Hey Denkou….I'll race you to the valley door!"

Without even waiting for Denkou's answer, he made a hand seal and he felt his body being lifting off the ground. All of a sudden Naruto glided over the ground at very fast speeds. He almost looked like he was surfing. Naruto grinned as he sped up the Hokage monument path and zoomed through the forest trees. In a matter of minutes, Naruto was standing in front of the valley door, looking behind him, laughing.

He turned around to perform the jutsu on the big rock when he saw his sensei lazily, and tipsily, leaning against said rock grinning at him. He yawned and stretched, ignoring Naruto's look of shock.

"Geez, what took you so long?"

Naruto lifted the goggles off his eyes and pushed it up. Placing it back on his forehead. He sputtered, "I…you…You were standing there. And I was in head of you….and you….you…were standing there! How the hell did you beat me here!"

Denkou shrugged as he performed the necessary seals, opening the door. "Faster?"

Naruto felt himself growl as he entered the valley. He didn't bother responding, but he ran towards the house, intent on dropping off his new gear and hitting the sack. He heard Denkou yell out from behind him.

"Catch an early night! Your first mission as a genin is tomorrow! You wouldn't want to be tired!"

Naruto simply flipped him off but continued running.

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Naruto sat on the balcony, staring up at the moon. A smile was plastered over his face. The cloudless night allowed Naruto to enjoy the very small but warm breeze. Naruto's mask and other clothes where off. He was merely wearing a pair of grey sweatpants and an orange sweatshirt, keeping him warm. His feet were bare.

Naruto loved coming out here. At night the valley was so much more beautiful than during the day, which was saying a lot considering the fact that it was already breath taking. Naruto looked over the mountain tops that encircled the valley. Right over the top of those mountains was the moon.

It was big. It wasn't a full moon, but Naruto still enjoyed being out there at night. His eyes were fully adjusted to the lighting.

Naruto smiled again.

Naruto frowned when he heard a whimpering noise, he looked down at the his and Denkou's training field and saw a black lump of fur slowly move across it. Naruto frowned again, and listened to it whimper.

He got up off the balcony and jumped down to the ground, rolling to break the momentum, to prevent any pain. He looked up and slowly approached the furball.

Naruto carefully walked towards the whimpering creature, unsure of what to do. He sat down in front of it, and it raised it's head. Naruto saw the fox head and blinked, a little bit of disgust welling up from inside. He hated the thing that was in his stomach and blamed it every step of the way for his punishment. So he was acting a little biased towards the fox in front of him right now.

Naruto pushed now those thoughts of disgust and picked up the fox, but set it back down after it let out a loud yowl of pain. Naruto put a finger on his chin, thinking. Then he snapped his fingers, he concentrated just a little bit and brought up the Kyuubi's chakra from within. He touched the wounded fox (He wasn't sure where it was wounded) and pushed the Kyuubi's chakra into it.

The fox yelped, but slowly relaxed and Naruto made kind noises towards it, letting the fox know he was a friend. Without any warning, the black fox fell on it's side. Naruto's eyes widened in shock.

"Oh my god! I killed it!"

He was about pull out some of his hair when he heard very adorable 'mew' noise and looked down towards the fox again. It was the same as before, but Naruto blinked when he saw its chest and stomach rise with a breath. Naruto tilted his head and smiled at the adorableness. So it was only sleeping…

Naruto carefully picked up the animal and walked back inside. He put two of his many pillows on the floor next to his bed, and placed a small blanket on top of the pillows. Making a small bed. He gently placed the black fox on top of the makeshift bed. He smiled, as he studied it.

The fur was a very silky, shiny black. The tips of it's ears and tail was a dark red, while the fox's 'boots' were the same color red also. It was a very interesting combination of colors for a fox, but it was adorable none the less.

Naruto smiled and pet the creature a little bit. He climbed in his own bed, and laid on his side, watching to little fox sleep. He smiled again, feeling a warmth and a giddy excitement flood through him. He turned his body and positioned it in the middle of the bed, looking at the ceiling.

He gave one last look towards the fox. He nodded.

"_If you're here tomorrow little fox, I'm keeping you. And your new name will be…..Shishiu…."_

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A/N:

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! Naruto got Shishiu back! Well. He just got Shishiu in this version of Suna's fire fox. Ya I know the training was rushed a little bit, but I got tired of explaining it. I really did. Haha and I didn't want to have writers block again. So I just kind of explain the important parts and left you to image the torture Denkou put Naruto threw….. Hehe

Well just to clarify, I do believe that Naruto's graduation was fair. The Hokage and surveyed Naruto throughout the two years he was training under Denkou. He obviously knew Naruto's skills already. And since he knew where Naruto was, he knew that having Naruto take the genin exam would have been completely pointless.

Also! Sasuke, Kakashi, and Sakura are going to be really good friends to Naruto's. Kakashi simply because the two of them hit it off really well, and Naruto kind of takes after the man when he starts to get to know him a little bit more. And I plan on having Naruto save Sasuke from the cursed mark. Why? Cuz I love Naruto and Sasuke as bro's. Their awesome.

But to Naruto, Denkou is the most important person in his life at this moment. The dude will play a major role in Naruto's life. And that's all I'm going to say otherwise I feel like I'd give some of the plot away!

Next chapter! Is where no time skips begin! Naruto is a free genin agent, I guess you could say. And he does various missions with the other genin teams. Detailed explanations of everything!

_**VERY IMPORTANT!**_

Lastly… a poll….. Should I make Naruto and Denkou go on the Wave mission? Or have them be doing another mission, and team 7 comes back to the village and Tazuna is escorted back to Wave by some Anbu?

Anyways…

Ja'Ne

11-Tailed Demon Wolf


	4. Chapter 4

Yeah son! Got my other book updated! After three years…. . oops. Well anyway! Chapter 4! Here yas go!

Oh on a side note….. If you're wondering what Naruto's and Denkou's fighting style looks like, its kind of like Aang's, and Zuko's in Avatar: The Last Airbender. Only it's way better cuz it's Naruto doing it. And I did add some things to the fighting style.

**Suna's Fire Fox**

"Speaking"

"_Thoughts" _

_Flashbacks_

"**Demon/Summon speaking"**

"_**Demon/Summon thoughts"**_

**Jutsu name or Jutsu**

Disclaimer: I own nothing but a car.

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"Denkou-kun, Naruto-kun. It's good to see you again."

Naruto and Denkou stood in front of the Hokage, looking as bored as ever. They both nodded.

"Oji-san."

"Saru-ji-san."

Naruto's night was fairly interesting. After Naruto woke up, he saw the fox was still there. So Naruto presented the fox to Denkou who shrugged and said that he could keep it as long as it didn't pee on any of his carpets. So Naruto named to fox Shishiu and fed the fox with some ground up meat, which it loved, and gave it a huge bowl of water to drink.

Naruto, with Denkou's permission, put a doggy door on Naruto's bedroom door and the door to the outside, so the fox can go in and out whenever it wanted. Naruto was making plans on training it so it can be a side kick kind of deal, or just get strong enough to be an awesome pet. So he decided to leave it at the valley today to wander and eat and drink, rebuilding it's strength.

Naruto grinned at the old man, "So what're we doing today, Oji-san? Some sort of awesome mission? Protecting a princess? Saving an old lady? Fighting off bad guys?"

Denkou sighed and slapped Naruto in the back of his head. "Baka. Just shut up and listen."

Naruto scowled and mumbled underneath his breath, but Sarutobi smiled, "Ah well, yes. Today, Naruto-kun, you'll be doing a joint mission with the team of my son's. Team ten. They should be here any minute now."

As if on cue, said team knocked and entered the office after Hiruzen had given permission. Naruto waved politely at the other team. Shikamaru had given Naruto the one head jerk, signaling that he acknowledged Naruto's presence. Chouji walked over to Naruto and stood next to him.

"Good morning, Naruto-san. So you're here for you mission also?"

Naruto nodded at the genin who was eating. "Yeah, I'm supposed to be doing a joint mission with you guys."

He faintly heard Shikamaru say something about missions being troublesome but he didn't think about it too much. At this time, Ino thought it would have been necessary to make her presence known.

"Today, Naruto. We are going to catch you off guard and get that mask off of you. Even if I have to hold you down to do it."

Naruto chuckled and scratched the back of his head at Ino's obvious flirt. "Well if you're the one holding me down I guess it wouldn't be so bad…"

Ino blushed the tiniest bit, not expecting him to actually flirt back. She crossed her arms. "Psh, you wish. Sasuke-kun is reserved for my beautiful body, anyway."

Naruto scowled at Sasuke's name and looked forward. Denkou nodded to Asuma, who nodded back. Sarutobi took a drag from his pipe and looked at them. He picked up a scroll and scanned the contents, enjoying the silence in the room.

"For now, you have a joint mission. Team ten with Team Denkou will be doing -"

"Why are we called Team Denkou? I mean can't I have a number too? Like Team 0 or Team Infinity….ooooooor it could even be Team Naruto! That would be the coole-"

Naruto's interruption was interrupted by Denkou slapping the back of his head, hard. Naruto glared at Denkou, who glared at Naruto.

"Shut up you little brat, Saru-ji-san is talking."

Naruto scowled, "Says the disrespectful assho-"

Once again, Naruto was interrupted by Denkou grabbing the front of his clothes and placing a foot behind Naruto's feet. He pushed Naruto backwards, and Naruto trip on Denko's feet, causing the blonde to be on the ground in a painful-looking heap. Denkou stepped on Naruto's stomach rather harshly, earning raised eyebrows of surprise from both of the Sarutobi's in the room. Denkou ignored Team ten's looks of fear and shock, he smiled at Hiruzen.

"You were saying Saru-ji-san?"

The Sandaime sighed, "Yes, as I was saying, Team ten and Team Denkou will be doing a joint mission. Your teams will be weeding Ms. Katake Hakashi's garden. You'll also pick all over her snap beans that she planted. Understood you're mission?"

Everyone nodded their heads. A voice from the floor spoke up, "Wait, so we're _weeding_ for our mission? That's not what ninjas do! We should be -"

Once again he was interrupted by Denkou slamming his foot in Naruto's gut again. A loud 'Ooof!' was heard from Naruto. Asuma looked at Naruto in pity, "Don't you think you're a little hard on Naruto, Denkou-sama?"

Denkou scowled, "Please don't call me that. I'm not a ninja any more and I don't deserve a ninja's respect. But I'm currently in the process of breaking Naruto's incredibly rude behavior, so no. I'm not too hard on him."

Asuma shrugged accepting the answer. Hiruzen sighed again. He seemed to do that a lot whenever Denkou and Naruto are around. He waved his hand and tossed the mission info to Asuma.

"You can leave now. It shouldn't take you more than a couple hours."

They all nodded and left, Denkou picked Naruto up to his feet and pushed him through the door to the Hokage's office. When they were gone, Hiruzen sighed and pulled off his hat. He turned around and faced the village.

"I'm much too old to handle those two…"

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Outside the office, Naruto was scowling. "Why are we doing a stupid mission like this?"

Ino nodded and looked at Naruto. "I agree with Naruto on this one, sensei. This mission does seem like a waste of our abilities."

Asuma took a drag of his cigarette and looked over at Denkou who shrugged and looked down at the four genin.

"Every team, every shinobi and kunoichi go threw this. They're D-ranked missions. These missions teach you genin, not only where you're place is in the village, but also it teaches patients. This is where team bonding comes into play. It's where you get to know your team. Besides, if a genin doesn't do them….who will?"

Asuma and Denkou chuckled at the last part. Chouji and Shikamaru looked bored, but they seemed okay with the system. Naruto and Ino however….

"What? That doesn't make any sense? That's just so stupid."

"Yeah, I agree with Ino. Team bonding? I don't even have a freaking team."

Denkou shot both of them a glare. "Ino-san, I may not be able to control how you talk or go about doing things. But you Naruto…You better just put up with it or I swear to kami you won't feel certain parts of your body for weeks. Not even your healing abilities will fix your problems."

Naruto gulped, fully knowing that Denkou was capable of doing such threats. He stayed quiet. Ino watched, very confused about the her team's partner right now. Denkou, such a nice guy, until it came to handling things with Naruto. Most of that stuff involved pain. She looked at the stud next to her. Naruto, such a good guy until it came to Denkou. He lived to curse the purple-eyed man and annoy him at every turn.

Ino sighed, not fully understanding the empty minds of boys.

The 6 of them walked out of the Hokage tower, enjoying the comfortable silence they had with each other. Team ten fell inline with Naruto, who was walking behind all of them.

Ino spoke up first, "So what's the deal between you and Denkou? You two never seem to get along."

Naruto smiled at her, "Well the truth is. We get a long just fine. We know things about each other that we probably shouldn't. It's just things you notice after you spend so much time with someone. But Denkou knows that when I learn things, I learn best through pain, something I hate that he knows. And I know that Denkou, despite hitting me and stuff, enjoys my acts of nonsense."

Naruto chuckled, Chouji frowned, "No offense, Naruto-san. But that's kind of weird."

Naruto shrugged, "Weird?….or awesome?"

Ino stared, "Weird."

"….or awesome?"

Shikamaru threw his two cents in, "That's weird, man."

"…...or awesome?"

They all chuckled, enjoying Naruto's…Naruto-ness. This time Shikamaru spoke up, "So Naruto, do you play any Shogi?"

Naruto nodded, "Only a little bit. I'm decent at it. Denkou tried to teach me a bunch of that kinda stuff for a while. I got pretty good at it, but I just can never seem to go past the point I'm at, now. Must be my age. Or something."

Shikamaru nodded, "We'll have to play sometime."

Naruto grinned at Shikamaru under his mask, "Of course! That'd be great!"

They all blinked when they realized they were there. Naruto sighed, "Let's get this over with, shall we guys?"

The other three nodded in agreement, knowing that they won't like doing missions like these one bit. They walked up to the door and knocked, the two sensei's standing behind them.

A middle aged woman answered the door. For a civilian, she was fairly attractive, if not almost too average. Brown hair, brown eyes.

She smiled at them, "Ah, are you the genin I hired?"

Ino stepped forward to answer before the others, she smiled. "Why yes we are. We're here to weed your garden and um….."

Naruto spoke up, "Pick your beans."

Ino shot him a thankful look as the woman, Hakashi, smiled at them. "Oh yes, then please come in! I'm sorry if it looks like a mess."

The 6 of them entered and looked around. There wasn't a single speck of dust or misplaced item in their sight. She smiled at all of them again. "Please follow me to the garden."

They all followed her through her house to the door that led to her back yard. Once outside they blinked and looked at the garden. It definitely wasn't as bad as it could have been. She turned and smiled at them, giving a small bow.

"You know what to do. If you need anything, I'll be inside."

She left to go inside, leaving the ninja in her back yard. Naruto groaned and looked at the garden.

"This sucks."

"Couldn't agree more."

"Very much so, Naruto-san."

"Tch….troublesome."

The four of them set to work. Obviously not enjoying themselves. Denkou and Asuma watched and chuckled from the side lines remembering their times doing things like this. Denkou gave a nostalgic smile as he watched the four of them.

He could remember doing stupid missions like these with Minato and Hiashi. Him and Minato would always tease Hiashi, because he was a stuck up kid. They did eventually break him of his arrogance, and they created many, many memories along the way. Denkou sighed, remembering the times were being a ninja didn't involve so much blood and death.

Naruto grunted angrily as he pulled out weed after weed. He scowled, obviously not enjoying himself. He looked over at Denkou.

"Hey, sensei, why are we doing this again?"

Denkou jerked his head up, obviously lost in though, which made Naruto frown. He cleared his throat.

"Team bonding, Naruto."

Naruto scowled, "Yeah I know that but what other skill does it teach besides that? Patience? That's worthless in a time of war or whatever."

Naruto seemed to be getting rather annoyed with the children's work they all were doing. Thinking a little bit, Denkou sighed.

"Here, Let me all teach you something that could make doing missions like these a lot harder and longer, but benefit you more."

The other three genin and Naruto paid close attention to what Denkou was going to do. He looked at them all and smirked, He put his hand over a plant, and visible chakra slowly dropped down from his hand and almost grabbed the plant from the ground. Very effortlessly, it pulled the plant out of the soil. They all stared, slightly wide-eyed.

Denkou smirked, "It's sort of like balancing a leave over your hand, only it incorporates tree walking into it also, get it Naruto?"

Naruto nodded, "So it's a chakra control exercise basically?"

Denkou nodded and pumped some of his lightning chakra into the plant, effectively frying it to ashes and let it blow away with the wind. He stood up and shook his hand off.

"Yeah, it'll be good to get your control better, and after you do that, just burn the plants with your fire."

Naruto nodded, "Okie dokie, sensei."

Denkou chuckled and watched his student do as he said, oblivious to the other students planning ways to pull off Naruto's mask and seeing his face. Denkou smirked and walked over to Naruto, intent on breaking his concentration by annoying the hell out of him.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Team ten and Team Denkou were walking back to the Hokage tower, to report a successful mission. Denkou had a few burn marks on his body, but was grinning stupidly. Team ten seemed to be wary of the two other ninja. And Naruto was fuming, similar scorch marks on his body, however his hair was sticking up in every single direction, small bits of electricity jumping back and forth. Naruto was shooting daggers at the man in front of him, mumbling under his breath about 'psychotic bastards and lightning'.

Naruto was too busy fuming to see his other teammates smirking. When Naruto turned a corner, he suddenly saw both Chouji and Shikamaru jump at him. He yelled as he was forced to the ground. Ino stood over him, smirking.

"Now! Naruto, we will see your face."

She reached down to pull his mask down. Naruto felt sweat form around his head. He wanted to keep the mask, he liked it. He looked around for an escape as her hand came down over his face in slow motion almost. Naruto saw a chair and quickly summoned the correct amount of chakra. He pushed it into the correct molding and he felt the effects happen a second later.

Naruto was standing where the chair used to be. And the chair was now in the grip of Shikamaru and Chouji, who looked thoroughly confused. Ino was glaring over at him, fuming at her failed attempt to see his face.

Naruto chuckled and wagged a finger at them. "Ma, that was a very valiant attempt, but you'll have to have a better plan than just that."

Naruto grinned at team ten and continued walking down the hall to the Hokage's office, his back turned to them. Not even a second later, Naruto felt his instincts flare and he simply ducked a grab at his head. He watched in amusement as Ino flew over his head and landed in a heap on the floor. He yelled and pointed at him as Naruto chuckled, hands in pockets.

"I'm going to see your face, Uzumaki! If its one way or another!"

Naruto smiled at her, "Your welcomed to try."

She yelled in frustration, got up and stomped off towards the Hokage's office. Naruto laughed and shook his head. He followed after her, as did the rest of the group. Denkou, in the back, was shaking his head, chuckling quietly. Asuma looked over at him.

"Does he always act like this?"

Denkou nodded still chuckling, "When he's not acting like this, that's when you should be worried."

Upon entering the stairway, they all walked up them to the Hokage's office and stopped in front of it. Asuma was about to knock when Naruto just opened the door. The chain smoker blinked, hand still held up, ready to knock.

Naruto smirked as he entered, "Oi! Oji-san! Easy peezy lemon squeezy. Now come on." He put one hand on Hiruzen's desk and leaned on it. "Give us a real mission. I'm done with all that crap."

Sarutobi chuckled, "I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. Not until ALL of the rookie genin are ready to take on higher missions, then I'll assign you one."

Naruto felt his eyes widen and his jaw drop. He closed them both angrily and turned to yell at team ten when all of a sudden, the blunt side of the kunai slammed into Naruto's face.

Naruto yelled out and fell to the floor, grabbing his nose-ish area. Denkou was chuckling as he put away the kunai. He grinned over at the Hokage.

"Completed mission Saru-ji-san. Sorry if we interrupted anything."

Denkou gave Naruto a small kick, as Hiruzen sighed, "Well I was in the middle of a debriefing when Naruto-kun burst in. But through experience, I've learned that he will most likely never learn to treat a Hokage with respect. He seems to have taken that aspect from you, Denkou-kun."

Denkou gasped, "Me? What? Saru-ji-san…come on. I give you the utmost respect."

"And I completely believe you right now."

Denkou scowled, but put the scroll down. It contained the mission report. Hiruzen picked it up and put it aside. "Team ten, you may go for now, you can come back in one hours time. I should have a mission available for you. Denkou-kun, Naruto-kun. Stay behind."

Naruto stood up slowly, holding his bleeding nose through his mask. And looked at the Hokage. Denkou put his hands in his pockets, obviously not very interested in what was happening. Hiruzen waited until team ten was out of the room, before he spoke.

"Now, your next mission for the two of you will be having a joint mission with team seven."

Naruto and Denkou, for the first time, looked over at the other occupants of the room. The two guys had a raised eyebrow. Kakashi was standing off to the side, smiling at them. His orange book was in his hand, momentarily forgotten.

The three S's were amused by their entry. Sasuke wasn't entirely facing them, though his head was, his face clearly showing a smirk of amusement. Next to him was Sakura, giggling slightly into her hand, but she gave Denkou a wary look, probably because of him hitting Naruto. She waved at Naruto, whose face split into a grin at the sight of her. Sai however, was standing farther off to the side, a blank look on his face as he studied Denkou and Naruto. His notebook from before was missing.

Naruto waved at them, "Oh hey guys, I didn't see you there."

Sakura smiled and gave a small bow, "It's good to see you again, Naruto-san."

Sasuke, like Shikamaru, gave the head jerk, with the side of. "Hn."

Sai gave Naruto a nod, "Naruto-san."

Naruto eyed the pale boy, wary of him. He stood next to Sakura, attempting to start a conversation with her. "So Sakura-chan, how many missions have you done already today?"

Sakura blushed slightly at his informality with her name, "Well this would be our first one today, but we've completed about ten so far."

Naruto heard Sasuke scoff, and he turned his glare on and looked at Sasuke, but he blinked when he saw Sasuke's annoyed look. That wasn't directed with Naruto.

"If you could even call these chores, missions…"

Naruto nodded, a scowl on his face also. "I have to agree with you on that one, Sasuke-teme."

Sasuke blinked at Naruto's name for him, and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow in amusement. Sakura's face went from polite and kind, to enraged in an instant.

"What did you call Sasuke-kun, Naruto!"

She put her fist up, steam was seemingly coming off of her. Naruto gulped, took a step back and put on arm in front of him, as if that could protect him from the girl.

"Uhh….n-nothing, Sakura-chan. Did I tell you, you look very pretty today?"

All anger forgotten, Sakura blushed and looked away for a second. "Thank you! I thought nobody would notice, I got this new mascara and I think it makes my eyelashes look bigger."

Naruto opened his mouth, but no words came out. Truth was, he only said that to get her anger off him, he hadn't seen anything different about her. He wasn't sure how to answer a statement like that. He gulped and nodded, "Well it's definitely working. I think."

Sakura smiled at him brightly and turned away, to stare at Sasuke. Naruto let out a sigh of relief, He looked over to Denkou, who was smirking and giving him a thumbs up. He felt the slightest of blushes appear on his face and he shot Denkou a smirk.

Kakashi came up behind Naruto and ruffled his hair. He chuckled as Naruto slapped his hand away, scowling. "Boy, you sure do know how to get out of a hard place and a rock."

Naruto shrugged, "Denkou taught me how to treat women. I doubted it would ever work, but after seeing him in action a few times. I believed it."

Kakashi giggled, "So you've seen him in action, eh? Never thought he would let you do that…"

Naruto blushed and punched Kakashi's arm lightly, "Not _that_ action, you pervert. I mean like picking up girls and stuff."

Kakashi chuckled and put his hands out in front of him. "Yeah, I know. I just felt like teasing you."

Naruto laughed a little but he heard someone clear his throat very loudly. Naruto and the rest of the people in the room turned towards a very annoyed looking Sarutobi. Naruto laughed sheepishly and scratched the back of his neck.

Denkou copied the same action. He blinked when he realized he was scratching his neck and stopped. He shook his head as he brought down his hand quickly. He frowned, _"Damn, that thing is catchy."_

The Hokage glared at Team Denkou, which both of them were awkwardly looking away from him. He sighed and looked at team seven.

"As I was saying…..Joint mission. Team seven and team Denkou. You're joint mission is to go to Ms. Kuhi Yurenai's house and paint her fence. She has the supplies at her place and the brushes. Here's the mission information. Go have fun."

He tossed the scroll to Kakashi, who caught it without looking. Team seven and team Denkou left the room. Naruto scowled and crossed his arms.

"This whole thing with doing chores is completely ridiculous. I can't handle it!"

Denkou shrugged, hands in pockets. "It's what you gotta do. Get over it."

Naruto scowled, still fuming over his task at hand. He looked over at team seven, wishing to start a conversation with them. He noticed Sai and Sasuke were ignoring the world, opting for silence to fall upon the two teams. Sakura was staring at Sasuke dreamily and Kakashi was reading his orange book again.

Naruto tilted his head to the side and walked next to Kakashi, cloak slightly blowing behind him. "Ne, Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi didn't look away but made a noise that Naruto assumed was for him to go on. "What is it that you're always reading?"

Kakashi looked at him from the corner of his eye, bored. He looked back at his book. "It's a very good novel. You should read it. It's made for adults, but seeing as you've hung around Denkou for a couple years I think you are adept to read it…."

Naruto brightened, "Really? Like made for adults how? Big words and a complicated plotline and stuff?"

Kakashi chuckled slightly, "You could say that…"

Naruto grinned, "Cool! Where can I get that book? Is it good?"

Kakashi started digging around in his back pocket and he pulled out another orange book, he handed it to Naruto. "Personally, I think it's very good. But it's all about preference. You can have that, I have others. That's the very first book to the series."

Naruto looked at the cover, "Icha Icha Paradise; Volume 1.… sounds interesting."

Without bothering to read any of it until later, he put the book in his pouch on his hip and continued walking.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

For the past three hours, team seven and team Denkou worked diligently on a fence that never seemed to end. Naruto was fairly suspicious of the women who they were currently employed for. She was an almost exact replica of Katake Hakashi. And lived next door to said women. Even Denkou had thought that to be slightly strange.

Through out the painting process, Naruto complain loudly. Earning him another training exercise to make it harder, which was painting the fence while doing a one-handed hand stand. Sasuke, who couldn't be beaten by Naruto, had started it also. Naruto had said some comments to Sasuke, and vise versa, creating a very heated debate between the two of them between which one is better. And thus, the rivalry was borne!

They all reported to the Hokage after the successful mission and team Denkou was allowed to leave. Which brings Naruto to where he was now, walking down the street and doing relatively nothing.

Naruto had his hands behind his head, trudging. He looked at all the chattering people, hearing bits and pieces of conversations. He sighed.

"So bored. So bored. Bored."

Naruto looked at Ichiraku, and was tempted to go in, but he had no money with him. He continued walking, taking in the scenery and the people. Konoha was a really village to live in, if your body wasn't infested with a demon. Naruto eventually lost himself in thought and didn't pay any attention to where he was going.

Naruto's thoughts were interrupted by the sudden cold he felt wash over his body. He shivered and looked around, wrapping his black cloak around him tightly. It was nighttime now, the moon high in the sky. Naruto stared at the moon, relaxing slightly. He gave a small smile at it, enjoying it's presence. Naruto tore his eyes off the moon and looked around at where he currently was.

He seemed to be standing in the middle of a training ground. Three poles were to the back of the clearing. Trees bordered the clearing, completing the training field look. Naruto scoffed, his was so much better.

He closed his eyes, feeling the night breeze slither through his hair and across his masked face.

"So you are Uzumaki Naruto, ne?"

Naruto's eyes shot open and in a split second, he threw a fireball punch towards the sound of the voice. Light spilled over the clearing as the fireball raced across the desolate ground. It crashed into a couple trees, setting them on fire in a small explosion.

Naruto kept his defensive stance looking around. He heard the voice to his side again and whipped his head in the general direction.

"No need to attack, child."

Naruto glared at the figure, putting on his serious face. He studied the man in front of him. He could see no part of his skin, hair, or face. He had all black clothes on. Nothing special. Black sweat pants, black sweatshirt, black hood, black shoes, black socks, black gloves, black facemask, black shades. Naruto's eyes narrowed at the man, showing that he was at least a threat.

The figured moved slightly, Naruto tensed. It stopped moving. "I see you are a wary one. Good, very good."

Naruto didn't say anything but kept his eyes trained on the guy. The figure started mumbling out loud. He was quiet but Naruto could hear him.

"Physically you are very fit, good. You keep your focus in a dangerous situation, good. Eyes, good. Seems like your ninjutsu is pretty good, good. You have a sword? I'll have to report that then. But over all, it seems like you were trained very well, genin of Konohagakure no Sato."

Naruto kept his face stony, not showing any emotion what so ever. The guy cracked his neck.

"I have came to give you a warning, Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto felt his interest spike, despite the situation. However, he didn't ease out of his defensive stance. "What warning?"

"I have come to tell you that Konoha isn't as nice as it seems."

Naruto frowned, "What?"

An insane chuckle came from the other guy's hood, "Deception, lies. Hatred, violence. Let's just say that the Hokage isn't the one that's pulling the strings around here."

Naruto felt a cold shiver run down his spine. "What are you talking about."

"I'm talking about a group. A group that has always been around, making it so that Konoha stays on top. Well, you see, this group has decided that if Konoha continues to grow, we're going to have to…remodel, so to speak."

All of a sudden, the man was behind him, whispering into his ear. Naruto felt terror run down his spine, he found himself unable to move.

"We'll start our renovations from within the safest place on earth. Blood? Death? Pain? None of that shall matter, we are unique to the advanced criminal organizations because we are spastically _organized. _You don't see us, but we see you."

Naruto watched him, eyes wide. He could feel his heart beat in his chest and he almost knew the man could hear it as well. The figure stopped in front of Naruto and leaned forward, to whisper in his ear.

"Why are you so serious?"

Naruto gulped, and breathed, "What….are you planning on attacking Konoha?"

Naruto almost _felt_ him grin. "Attacking, defending, accusing, preventing. When broken down to the very basics, their all the same thing. No, I'm doing all of those things at once. I am creating a new world by eradicating Konoha's infrastructure."

He stepped back from Naruto, and waved his hands around, doing a small dance. "I'm eliminating a problem by creating a problem!"

Naruto felt sweat bead around his forehead. He kept his eyes fixed on the man, and he didn't want to blink.

"Scars may remain, but they'll heal over and become stronger. I can only hope that this concept will apply after we are through with Konoha."

Naruto found a strength from inside, that he had no idea where it came from. "Why are you telling me this?"

The figure laughed out, insanely. "You are a major part of our plan. You won't realize it, but you will be the downfall of Konoha."

Naruto felt himself bristle. "I would never betray Konoha. I'm going to be Hokage one day so I can stop bastards like you!"

The man lowered his head, "Dreams only exist when you're sleeping, Naruto-kun."

Naruto snarled at him and did a round house kick in the air. A wave of fire rolled off his leg and foot, arcing towards the guy in a slicing manner. The figure disappeared right before the fire hit him.

Naruto watched as the man was in the line of absolute death, then pain flared intensely through his face. He heard and felt a crunch, and then felt the hot liquid explode from his nose as the guy broke it. Naruto gave a short yell in pain and landed roughly on the ground.

Oh god the pain. He could only concentrate on the pain. He felt Kyuubi start to heal his nose quite painfully, but he could feel his blood soaking into his facemask and slowly dripping onto his clothes. He clutched it. It hurt so bad. With tears in his eyes, he slowly opened them.

Naruto quickly got up and glared at the man who broke his nose. The figure laughed at him, "Hokage! It's useless waste of time. Nothing ever good comes from being a Hokage, or having one."

Naruto scowled but counted down from ten, he controlled his emotions. He looked up at the man. "I don't understand, why would you do this?"

"We would do this because it will wipe the system. Everyone's debts….gone. We'll all be equal, starting all over again."

Naruto shook his head, "That's sick."

Naruto received the first true emotion the man now. He got a tad bit angry. "Oh is it? Or is it the smartest thing anyone has ever said to you? I know what you hold, and I know that if this happens, you will be as equal as everyone else. If not already in head of them. Your curse will become your gift."

Naruto stared at him, incredulously. "How."

The man held both arms up, "Those with the strength, hold the power."

Naruto growled, "I don't believe you."

The guy scoffed, "You will one day, Naruto-kun."

Naruto didn't say anything for a while…. He just stared at the man in front of him. With out getting a response from Naruto, the black figure started walking away, talking at the same time.

"I came to offer you a position Naruto. You can join us, and in return, we will not destroy Konoha. If you don't join us….you, yourself, will destroy Konoha and you'll be an empty shell after what you have done. So I will give you one weeks time to think about my offer….. Next week, this same training ground, training ground 8, at midnight. I will hear your answer."

Naruto watched as the man was about to leave, he held out a hand. "Wait!"

The figure turned it's hooded head slightly and stopped, indicating that he was listening. Naruto spoke. "Who are you people?"

"We are….. Ashi."

And with that, the figure was gone.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Naruto was surfing home, cloak billowing behind him, goggles over his eyes, blood covering his mask. He was in a bad mood. He couldn't stop thinking about everything that man had said to him. He wondered briefly if it was a practical joke on one of the villagers, but the emotion, the feeling, the _intensity_ could not have been staged in the least.

Naruto stared forward, lost in his thought. He didn't notice that he had arrived at the entrance of his little valley a while ago, and when he did he merely did the necessary seals and entered the beautiful place. He slowly walked across the valley, forcing himself not to think about the difficult decision he would have to face.

Naruto kicked his shoes off before he opened the front door, he entered the house and walked into the kitchen, He could hear Denkou right when he opened the door.

"You know, Shishiu, I have absolutely no idea why Naruto insists on keeping you. You eat my food, you pee all over the place, which is going to change soon, and you sleep all day! When are you going to start doing your share around here?"

Naruto quietly turned the corner the kitchen and blinked as he took upon the scene. Denkou was holding Shishiu at eye level, glaring at him. Denkou had a scowl on his face. Shishiu tilted his head and yipped, then he licked Denkou on the tip of his nose.

Denkou blinked, but smiled slightly, "Well…you are really cute…"

He brought Shishiu close to his chest and smiled at the fox. Naruto raised an eyebrow and grinned, forgetting about everything that happened earlier, thanks to the amazingly cute scene in front of him.

"Well. Well. Well…. What do we have here?"

Denkou jumped slightly, dropping Shishiu and whirled around to face Naruto, face entirely devoid of emotion. "Naruto! Er….hi."

Naruto grinned at him, "So you do like her? Ne?"

Denkou kept the blank face, "I said no such thing."

Naruto waved his hand but grinned at him none the less. He started to walk towards the refrigerator. Denkou frowned at Naruto, "Oi….Naruto, what happened to your face?"

Naruto froze. Should he tell Denkou? Or keep it a secret? Would it worry him? Would Denkou be an outside force that would alter his _true_ decision? He gulped quietly, and closed his eyes. He was glad the refrigerator door was blocking Denkou's view from everything except for his feet. This decision might change his life….He had to decide.

"Oh nothing, you know. Sasuke wanted that spar and he got a lucky shot in."

Denkou stared at him for a second, but then shrugged. "What did he look like after the spar?"

Naruto released a breath he didn't know he was holding and chuckled slightly. "A lot worse than I do, I'll tell you that."

Naruto grabbed some random item of food, and heated it up using his hand. He grabbed silverware and sat down at the table, eating some mashed potatoes as it looked like.

Denkou sat down from opposite him, smiling. "So I have this really cool jutsu I've been working on. I think I've worked all the kinks out of it and I wanted to show it too you later."

Naruto felt Shishiu jump onto his lap and curl up into a ball. He looked down at Shishiu and petted her. He looked at Denkou and raised his eyebrow.

"Will I learn it?"

The black haired man waved his hand, "Eventually, but it's lightning based so you'll have to get better at lightning before I teach it to you."

Naruto deflated slightly, but was still interested in what Denkou could still possibly teach him in the future. Naruto thought for a second then looked at Denkou.

"Oi, Denkou, do you think that maybe you could tell me about when you became a genin?"

Denkou blinked and looked up, caught off guard by the question. Occasionally Naruto asked for a story about his life. Usually he only did this when he wanted something to compare with, or because he had a troublesome issue he just wanted to forget about.

Denkou nodded, "Well, anything specific?"

Naruto shook his head, "Na, just anything."

The purple eyes looked at Naruto's blue ones in thought. He snapped his fingers. "Okay. I got one. Let's see, it was about 20 years ago. Maybe more….."

_-Flashback (Denkou's time)-_

_Denkou was walking down the road to his new training ground. He was quite nervous. The sun was just peaking over the horizon, and he could see the silhouettes of his teammates already at their designated meeting area. He readjusted the brand new hitai-ate on his forehead and jogged slightly to meet up with his team. _

_Denkou was wearing baggy black pants, with shin guards underneath, and standard black shinobi sandals. He had on a pure black figure forming turtle neck t-shirt. His hitai-ate tied around his forehead, also black. His hands weren't covered; but showed gray scars from repeated use. He grinned at his two teammates and walked up next to them._

_The two young boys turned towards him, each respectively acknowledging his presence. The one on the right nodded at him, and turned back away. He had on cream colored robes, with fishnet underneath his shirt. The Hyuga clan symbol on his back, proudly contrasting against he cream. Dark brown hair was shoulder length and brushed back. His hitai-ate was tied around his left arm. A very light colored lavender eyes with no pupils focused intently on a random area in front of him._

_The second one saw Denkou and grinned brightly, he waved at him. This boy had very bright yellow hair, which seemed incapable of ever being controlled and shot up in every direction. He had two short side bangs around his face and the brightest blue eyes. He wore a white sweatshirt with a thick black strip going down the shoulders and sleeves. He wore black shinobi pants tapped into his black shinobi sandals. His hitai-ate was tied around his forehead also._

_Denkou stopped next to them and cracked his neck. "Good morning! Hope you guy's slept well! 'Cause I did!"_

_The blond haired one, Namikaze Minato, flinched at his best friend's loud attitude. "Not so loud Den-kun, it's much too early."_

_Denkou shrugged, "I think it's the perfect time Nato-kun. Early bird gets the worm! What do you think about this, Hiashi?"_

_Hyuuga Hiashi looked at Denkou and Minato threw the corner of his eye. "I think Jiraiya-sensei is late."_

_Minato smiled and Denkou frowned, "That's no answer!"_

_Before anyone else could retort, a puff of smoke interrupted their conversation. Jiraiya smiled at Minato, then the rest of his team after he arrived. _

"_Gooooooood morning, my young students! Hope you all slept well?"_

_Denkou nodded, enthusiastically. Minato groaned, and Hiashi didn't make a sound or move. Jiraiya grinned._

"_Well, today, I don't really have anything planned. Sooo, instead we're all just going to go out to eat!"_

_Minato and Denkou perked up when they heard that. Hiashi, however, narrowed his eyes. "I do not believe that we should be wasting our training time eating food, when we could be bettering our abilities. If I'm not mistaken, the chunin exams are coming up and we need to be adequately prepared."_

_Jiraiya laughed. He ruffled Hiashi's hair. Hiashi sent him a dark glare, flipped his hair once and it was back to the way it was before. Jiraiya grinned at him._

"_That's very true, but how can anyone train with an empty stomach? Besides, I have the utmost belief that you guys won't have any problems with the exam. Minato is great everything, and I guarantee that he'll pass easily. Hiashi, you're the prodigy of the Hyuuga clan. Nobody has eyes like you, or the ability you posses with the Jyuuken. And Denkou…..well you'll be fine."_

_Denkou deflated at the lack of compliment from their sensei that his two beaming teammates received. He knew that Jiraiya loved Minato. And although Hiashi never truly showed emotion, Jiraiya did his very best to keep the stoic heir pleased and very well trained. _

_It was with Denkou that Jiraiya had problems with. Denkou didn't understand why Jiraiya just didn't like him as well as he did the other two. He was the black sheep. Denkou trudged along behind his team, hearing Minato and Jiraiya laugh and talk about random subjects. Denkou sighed, it was like this a lot. _

_Denkou sat through out the entire meal, making conversation with the rest of his team. Despite the favoritism, Jiraiya taught them all very equally and all three were very strong. They were a very good team. Denkou sneaked a peek over at a laughing Minato. Jiraiya was chuckling, and Hiashi had a small smile on his face. _

_Denkou missed his best friend dearly. It was obvious to Hiashi and Denkou that Jiraiya had been paying very special attention to Minato, giving him scrolls on some new jutsu, or stopping by his house and giving him tips on his fighting style or a jutsu both him and Minato were inventing. _

_After the meal, the team parted ways. Jiraiya said there was nothing else to do today. After Hiashi was around the corner, and after he THOUGHT Denkou was out of earshot, Jiraiya turned towards the walking away Minato._

"_Hey, Minato, would you like to come with me to the training field? I have a few things to show you."_

_Denkou stopped walking and felt his chest tighten. Him and Minato were supposed to go to the training ground together in about an hour. Denkou kept his face blank and continued to walk again. He didn't hear what Minato said, but he turned a corner and walked a little bit. _

_Minato ran around the corner, eyes searching for him. When Minato spotted Denkou he smiled, "Hey Den-kun!"_

_Denkou forced a small smile on his face and turned around to look at Minato, who was running up to him. "Yeah, Nato-kun?"_

_Minato smiled apologetically at him, "Hey, you know our training today? Can we push that back a few hours? Something came up and I have to be there."_

_Denkou frowned, a bitter anger started to rise in his chest. "You know I can't do that. I have to help out at the orphanage today. I volunteered…"_

_Minato blinked, "Oh yeah….Sorry, I forgot about that."_

_Denkou stared at his face a little bit. He knew that whatever it is that Jiraiya will teach Minato, he will teach Denkou later on. The only issue is that Minato wasn't a very good teacher, and Denkou had problems learning the jutsu or technique properly, leaving Minato with the stronger version._

_Minato smiled at him, "Maybe we can do it tomorrow?"_

_Denkou shook his head, "No, it's fine, don't worry about it. Just…..just go do whatever."_

_Minato felt the hurt in his friends voice, "Are you sure? I can do it another time."_

_Denkou shook his head, "No, you go have fun! I'll be okay, after all. I'm always stronger than you with feelings and stuff."_

_Denkou shot him a huge grin, eyes closed. The grin went from ear to ear. Denkou chuckled a little bit. Minato looked at him with admiration, a grin slowly spread across his face also. Minato gave a small salute to Denkou then turned and ran off. _

_Denkou watched him go, the grin slipping off his face slowly. He sighed and shook his head. He threw his hands in his pockets as dark clouds formed over his head. It wasn't supposed to rain today, but just be an overcast. _

_Denkou felt a pain in his heart. "Thanks for remembering my 14__th__ birthday, Nato-kun."_

_Denkou felt a rain drop land on his nose, he scowled up towards the sky. Remembering what Saru-ji-san had told him about his ability to control the weather based off his emotions, Denkou felt the anger rise again and watched the sky for any signs. _

_A loud crack of thunder burst threw the sky. Denkou sighed and slowly walked home. He heard the thunder and could see the flashes of lightning. But Denkou didn't cry. He never cried. And that's why it didn't rain that day._

_-End Flashback-_

Denkou looked at the table, trying to remember exactly why he had chosen that particular memory to tell to Naruto. Naruto studied Denkou's face, a blank look plastered on.

Denkou sighed, "I'm sorry for that."

"Whenever you talk about the Yondaime, you have so many good memories, but at the same time, you have so many bad memories. You say his name a lot differently than anyone else's name…"

Denkou fiddled with his hands. He didn't say anything for a while. Silenced reigned over the two of them. Denkou sighed, breaking the silence.

"Minato was a great friend. But in the end, he just wasn't the friend I thought him to be. He's much better off being a leader at a military stand point than a best friend. He has that charisma that gets people to follow him, and he has the best personality. He was truly a great man. The only issue with him is that he couldn't be that friend for anyone. He was much too focused at improving his skills so he can protect the precious people in his life. He always wanted to become Hokage. He would have done anything to get to that point in life."

Denkou sighed. Naruto didn't say anything. The blonde haired boy picked Shishiu off his lap and stood up. He stared at Denkou, "I'm sorry for asking, Denkou-sensei. I honestly didn't mean for that to happen."

Denkou felt Naruto walk away from the table.

"Naruto…"

Naruto stopped at the door way, he turned his head to face Denkou, eye brow raised. Denkou stood up and stopped in front of Naruto, looking down into his eyes.

"You're a lot like him, you know…"

Naruto frowned, confused. "What do you mean?"

Denkou chuckled, ignoring his question. "You're so much like him it's scary. The only difference is your order of priorities."

Naruto felt his mouth open slightly, but no words came out. Denkou still studied Naruto's face. "Minato would have his priorities in this order; Protect his precious people, become Hokage, and then his actual precious people. You however, go in the order of; Protect your precious people, precious people, and then become Hokage."

Naruto didn't know what to say, so he stayed quiet. But there was no doubt in his mind that his face probably was one of pure shock. Denkou smiled and ruffled Naruto's hair.

He turned around and started to clean up the small mess the two of them created while eating. "But because of that Naruto, it makes you so much of a better man than he was."

Naruto stood there, stone still. He didn't know how to react to this. Denkou stopped at the kitchen sink. He didn't face Naruto.

"I want you to know that I came up with the idea to seal the demon off long before he did. And I offered to be the one to do it."

Naruto felt his mouth drop more. He couldn't handle all this information at once. But to hear that the reason why his life was so bad was because the man in front of him suggested it.

Denkou sighed, "Of course Minato immediately said no. The fox killed so many more people because of that. He finally came to me and said 'lets do this'. but he wouldn't let me be the one to seal the Kyuubi away. It had to be him. He was the Hokage, not me.

Denkou turned his head slightly, not wanted to show his face to Naruto. "If he had agreed to my plan earlier, or let me be the one to seal it away….Konoha would be ten times greater than it is today. And you might not even had been the container…"

Denkou stopped talking. Naruto stood still. The awkward silence was broken by Shishiu wimpering to get out of Naruto's arms. The fox jumped out and ran out of the doggy door to the outside. The silence continued between the two.

With out a noise, Naruto turned around and walked up the stairs to his bed room. Denkou heard the door close quietly upstairs. He looked out his window and saw the cloudy night. Rain was starting to fall outside. He felt his own tears slowly dribble down his face.

He walked towards his locked den and pushed some chakra into it. A clicking noise sounded out and Denkou opened it. Inside the 'study' room was hundreds of scrolls and books lying messily about. Accompanied these books and scrolls was many empty bottles of sake.

Denkou reached into a nearby drawer and pulled out a bottle of sake. He opened it up and chugged down almost half of the bottle. He heard a crash outside and sighed, it was raining, hard. He felt the tears spill down his eyes.

Denkou cradled his head in his hands and shook his head. He chugged down the rest of the bottle and got out another. He shook his head and started muttering.

"He wasn't ready yet. He wasn't ready for any of that yet…."

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A/N: Hey sorry for the long wait. School started when I first started writing this and I was busy being the manager for the boys soccer team, I'm in 5 AP classes, and now basketball started sooooo I have been super busy.

J I wrote this over Christmas break so I just want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope that all of you got everything you wanted!

I can tell you for sure that I most definitely did not get what I wanted, but I'm happy about what I did get.

Ja'Ne

11-Tailed Demon Wolf


	5. Chapter 5

Hey yall. Sorry I took forever on the last one again. School started, basketball started, soccer ended, that's good, and I'm in 5 AP classes. It was just difficult for me to do this. But I'm on Christmas break right now so hopefully I'll be able to finish another chapter in this time. I have four days left. Yippe! Soooooooooo once again. Here we go.

**Suna's Fire Fox**

"Speaking"

"_Thoughts" _

_Flashbacks_

"**Demon/Summon speaking"**

"_**Demon/Summon thoughts"**_

**Jutsu name or Jutsu**

Disclaimer: I own nothing but a car.

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"Naruto….Naruto…hey! You dumb blonde! Listen!"

Naruto jerked his head up and looked around, too see everyone looking at him. The rookie 9 plus Naruto decided to go out to eat again. It's become a weekly basis for them to do this. Right now they were at the barbeque that the Akamichi family owned. Since Chouji was part of the family, they always got discounts. And to Naruto's delight, they sold ramen there.

Kiba had an annoyed look on his face, Naruto blushed sheepishly. "Sorry, I've had a lot on my mind recently."

It was true. Exactly one week has passed since his meeting with Ashi. Today was day where he had to make a choice. Naruto really couldn't think about anything else besides it. It was a very long week for Naruto.

Kiba sighed, "Whatever, did you hear what I said?"

Naruto chuckled, embarrassed. "Errr, no."

Kiba laughed a little, along with everyone else. "Well don't worry about it, just say yes."

Naruto blinked and shrugged. "Yeah."

Smirking, Kiba grinned at Shikamaru. "See? Naruto agrees with me."

The conversations continued, and Naruto smiled at the two of them. Naruto looked over at the girls talking and giggling in the corner. He smiled at them, they were all so pretty. Especially Sakura….

Naruto shook his head before anyone noticed, he looked over at all the sensei's in a different part of the restaurant. Denkou, Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai… They were all drinking and having a fun time. Naruto looked down at his empty ramen bowl.

He already knew exactly what he was going to say to Ashi. There was absolutely no way he would ever destroy Konoha, he loved it too much. Konoha wouldn't betray him either, especially Oji-san. Naruto looked out the window, at the passing people. Then he noticed something.

A figure dressed in all black, was leaning against a pole on the opposite side of the street. Naruto's eyes widened, He leaned in closer as if to get a better view. The figure, who's looks greatly resembled the man from Ashi one week ago. Naruto felt his heart beat quicken. Why would that man show him self?

The figure pushed himself off the pole and stood to his full height. A few people walked by, blocking Naruto's view from the man. Naruto felt his heart freeze and he stiffened. When the people passed again, the figure was gone. In it's place was a scroll, leaning against the pole on the ground. Naruto blinked, he looked around the table to see if anyone else noticed his quite obvious staring. Sasuke was the closest person to notice, and he was staring straight ahead at his food. The rest of the rookie 9 were too engrossed with their conversations.

Naruto stood up and he smiled at everyone who all briefly turned and looked at him. He gave a small wave, "I'll be right back, I have to go….um…to the bathroom."

Naruto turned and headed towards the bathroom. Everyone went back to their conversations. Sasuke watched Naruto leave, his eyes narrowed. He looked outside to the pole that Naruto was staring at intensely not even 5 minutes ago. He saw nothing of interest about the pole, and he turned back to the food he was eating.

Naruto opened the door to the bathroom and looked around for a window of some sort. Naruto frowned as he saw a really small window. He scowled at how small the window was. Looking around to make sure nobody was in the bathroom, Naruto opened it and stuck one leg out. Using chakra, he stuck his leg to the outside wall and attempted to climb out of the window. Naruto struggled for a little bit. Naruto looked up as he heard the bathroom door open, his eyes widened. Naruto got through at the last second and fell out the window, landing harshly on the ground.

He groaned and mumbled angrily about windows and rolled out of the view of the window. When he was a decent distance away he got up and dusted himself off. He looked out into the street then back to the window. He frowned, he couldn't take the risk of his friends seeing him. He suppressed his chakra, and henge'd into a dog. Naruto went over to the scroll leaning against the pole. Naruto checked around him before he picked it up in his mouth. He jogged back to the alley the bathroom window was in.

Cancelling his henge, he transformed back into his old self. He checked around him again and opened it up. Naruto read the scroll.

**Training field 12**

**Midnight**

**Bring your answer, and no one will follow you**

**Ashi **

Naruto rolled the scroll back up. He looked up at the wall across from him. So Ashi changed the meeting place. Strange. Naruto pocketed the scroll and peeked into the window again to see if anyone was in the bathroom. With much more grace this time, Naruto climbed back through the window and closed it.

He brushed himself off and was about to open the door to the bathroom, when it flew open. He blinked when Sasuke was eyeing the room, and Naruto. He was scowling.

Naruto tilted his masked head to the side, "Uh, can I help you teme?"

Sasuke ignored the snarky remark and looked Naruto up and down, "You were gone a long time, dobe."

Naruto kept his face blank, but felt his heart skip a beat. So Sasuke was paying attention… He shrugged, "The ramen here just didn't set very well with my stomach."

Sasuke eyed him, "We've eaten here before…"

Naruto kept eye contact, "Well today's was different."

Sasuke didn't move from the door frame for a while, he was staring at Naruto's masked face. Naruto's goggles were unreflective in the bathroom light. The only thing bright about Naruto right now was his hair and his eyes. His orange skin tight shirt was hidden by his cloak that was wrapped around him.

Sasuke finally stepped to the side, allowing Naruto to pass him. Sasuke followed him back to the table. When Naruto returned to the table he was greeted by chuckles and smiles, Kiba grinned at him.

"What did you do? Fall in or something?"

Naruto chuckled and scratched the back of his head sheepishly. He didn't answer that but he sat down and smiled at everyone. He leaned on his elbows and listened to the conversations, occasionally joining. Until an argument between Naruto and Chouji came up about which is better: Ramen or Barbeque ribs.

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Dark reigned over Konoha. A bright moon shining over the sky, giving the necessary light for someone to fight in. A black figure was sitting up in a tree at training ground 12. This figure was in fact Naruto. Contrary belief, the orange color that Naruto picked out didn't show much at night and was just as good as black or camo. It was very close to midnight. Naruto's goggles was pulled down over his eyes and was switched to thermo mode. His blonde hair was covered by his cloak. He was currently looking for any sign of light.

He has been sitting up there for a while now. Thinking and waiting to see where exactly this man will come from. Out of absolutely no where, a body showed up on Naruto's goggles. He tensed, wondering how in the hell did this man suddenly manifest all of his energy.

He watched as the man walked out into the clearing, standing alone and still. Naruto watched him for a little bit before he jumped off his branch and fell to the tree. He saw the man's head turn very slightly towards Naruto.

Naruto stood up to full height and pushed his goggles up. He blinked, allowing his eye sight to adjust to the new way of seeing things. He saw the man, and walked towards him.

Naruto stopped a good distance away from the man. He didn't say anything.

The figure tilted his head, "You are here. And you are here alone."

Naruto nodded, "I am."

The figure chuckled, "And you have an anser…?"

Naruto nodded again, "I do."

The figure smiled, "Good, now. What have you decided? Join Ashi? Or destroy Konoha?"

Naruto tensed up and took a defensive stance, "I neither. I will never join Ashi. Nor will I destroy Konoha."

The figure chuckled and took off his hood, showing messy short dark green hair. Naruto tensed even more. Then the figure pulled down his face mask, showing Naruto the rest of his head. Naruto blinked.

The man had a pale face, although it was very angular, almost like an elf. He had one scar on his cheek, noticeable but faint. He had brown eyes, very demented brown eyes. The figure smiled.

Naruto narrowed his eyes, "Tell me something, who are you. Not your group, but just you."

A chuckled escaped his mouth, "Who am I? Well, since you turned down our offer, I might as well tell you. Because you will destroy Konoha one day. Whether you want to or not. My name is….Ashi."

Naruto growled and took an offensive position, "Quit fucking around! I want to know your name!"

Ashi put one hand on his hip and he wagged his other finger. He tsk'ed Naruto. "I have no reason to you Naruto. My group is called Ashi, and also my name is Ashi. I gave it to myself. I don't remember the name my parents have given me. It was too normal for my tastes."

Naruto didn't move, the figure, now identified as Ashi smiled. "Relax, Naruto-kun. I'm not going to attack you. Today."

Naruto didn't relax.

Ashi smiled, "I will definitely have more conversations with you later, Naruto-kun. But for now… you have made your point clear. I will take my leave. Just remember that we are not your enemy until you make us your enemy."

With a small wave to Naruto, Ashi disappeared in a swirl of leaves. Naruto let out a breath he didn't know he was holding. He smiled as he felt a huge weight lift off his chest. It's been very heavy on him fro the past week. Naruto closed his eyes and fell over backwards. He sighed.

"I'm only 14, and I can hardly handle any of this shit…"

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Naruto went home that night, smiling and all too happy. Denkou was glad to see that Naruto was back to his old self. That night, Denkou had told Naruto that he wished to share a drink with Naruto. The blonde was skeptical at first but after a few drinks, Naruto had a blast with Denkou, both of them getting plastered.

The morning went quite uneventful. Because of the Kyuubi, Naruto didn't have to worry about having a hangover, something that Denkou cursed Naruto for, and told him that he was eternally jealous of that ability. Naruto wished Denkou good bye as he went to go train with the rookie 9 today. They all had occasional joint training sessions with everyone at the suggestion of Denkou.

Denkou, unfortunately, told Naruto he would be late to the training because he had to give Sarutobi the monthly update on what has been happening with him and Naruto and everything. As was required of him from his original mission.

The two separated, not knowing anything at all of the impending doom that was bound to happen that day, changing the course of history forever….

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Ashi was in a dark area. He stood lazily in the middle of the room. Ashi did a few hand seals, very strange and unfamiliar hand seals. Three globs of flesh melted off his body and formed identical replicas of him. They lined up in front of him, standing just as lazily, but obviously obedient.

Ashi looked at them, "You know what to do."

The three Ashi men all chuckled and formed yet another strange hand seal. Slowly they to transform into different people…

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Naruto was gliding to the usual training ground that he and the others always trained at. He was in such of a good mood since last night. He smiled as he saw the training area ahead of him. Naruto cancelled his jutsu.

He flipped threw the air and landed on his feet, sliding across the ground and stopped in front of all the other genin. He was grinning, but none could tell due to his mask. Kakashi nodded his head in greetings.

Shikamaru snorted, "Troublesome…of course you would choose a flashy entrance."

Naruto shrugged, checking out his nails. "Well the best has to be noticed, right?"

Sasuke snorted, "You? The best? Please.."

Naruto ignored Sasuke, turning towards Kakashi. "So what exactly are doing today?"

Kakashi looked around, "Well, we were going to go around in and trade sensei's every couple hours but Denkou doesn't seem to be here. Where is he? Exactly?"

Naruto shrugged, "He said that he had to go report some stuff to the Hokage."

Asuma sighed, "Well maybe we can spar or something."

Kurenai nodded, "Good idea, who would like to go first?"

Sasuke stepped forward, "I want to spar Naruto."

Naruto scratched the back of his head, "Er, well I don't, anyone else want to go?"

Sakura glared, "No offense, Naruto-san. But I don't think you could touch Sasuke-kun."

Ino nodded, "For once I agree with Forehead."

Naruto looked at the two of them, then back at Sasuke's cocky smirk. He looked at the sensei's nodding his head vigorously. "Challenge accepted."

Kakashi shrugged, "Okay, Sasuke, Naruto. Go to the middle of the training field. Everyone else, lets go to the sidelines."

Naruto walked lazily over to the middle of the field. Completely relaxed, he watched Sasuke walk across from him, tense and ready to strike. Naruto studied Sasuke's stance.

He raised a blonde eyebrow, "_Uchiha fighting style. Not surprised, but if I remember what Denkou-sensei had told me about the Uchiha, was that they tended to be fire based. And wind only enhances fires power. And to fight fire with fire seems highly redundant. Sooooo, I guess I'll just negate his jutsu's and fight him purely using taijutsu. I don't feel like mortally injuring the bastard if I whipped my sword out (_Pun not intended)_."_

Kakashi coughed, pulling out his orange book. "Uh, you can start now. Or whatever."

Sasuke immediately charged Naruto, whipping out a kunai and slashed at Naruto's chest. Naruto blinked as the kunai came close to slashing Naruto, but at the last second he leaned back a little, taking a step back to balance himself.

Sasuke switched the grip on the kunai to bring it back for a reverse slash. Naruto frowned, before Sasuke could get any closer to Naruto, Naruto caught Sasuke by the wrist, effectively stopping whatever stabbing he had going. Naruto head butted the Uchiha, and let go of Sasuke's wrist. He turned into a roundhouse kick and sent Sasuke flying, making the black haired boy let go of his kunai.

Naruto watched the kunai hit the ground and chuckled. Sasuke got up, dusting himself off. Glare on his face, he scowled at the blonde. Naruto smirked at Sasuke.

"Come on, lets not use dangerous weapons. We're friends here."

Sasuke growled and charged at Naruto again, Naruto smirked and got in his defensive stance. Sasuke threw a punch at Naruto's face, which Naruto simply moved it back a bit to throw off Sasuke. Sasuke went with the motion and brought his back foot up towards Naruto's face. Naruto saw this and summoned his cushion of chakra on that side of his face.

Sasuke's foot connected with the side of his head, but Naruto felt nothing. He felt the momentum of his body lean to the side. Naruto used that kinetic energy to plant a hand stand and did a spinning kick at Sasuke's side.

Sasuke took the full brunt of the attack and felt the air leave his lungs quite painfully. He skidded away from Naruto, who stood up looking perfectly fine despite the hit he just took to his face. Sasuke stopped rolling and slowly got up. Naruto's attacks hurt.

Sasuke got up and growled.

On the sidelines, the genin all sat their wide eyed. Sakura was stammering, "H-how is he…? He's just fine… and he hit Sasuke-kun a lot…? I don't understand, I thought Sasuke-kun is the best?"

Hinata was beaming, she lowered her head and smiled to herself. "_Naruto-kun is beating Sasuke-san!"_

Kakashi was looking at Naruto with admiration. "Well, Sasuke may be the Rookie of the Year, but its been a while since you guys have seen Naruto, and he's been training under the Yondaime's teammate. Of course Naruto would have come a very long way from where he was long ago."

Chouji looked at Kakashi, "But Sasuke was so good before and Naruto was pretty terrible. For him to come this far means that he had to do some pretty tough training."

Asume took a drag of his cigarette, "Denkou-sama doesn't know any other way of training. I can honestly say that Naruto must have endured terrible training."

On the field, Sasuke was getting frustrated, while everyone was discussing the fight, Sasuke continuously got his ass handed to him. He was beat up severely at this time. He had bruises on his body, a scrape on his cheek that was bleeding slightly. He had a bloody lip and a slightly bruised eye. He looked worse for wear.

Sasuke stepped back and ran threw hand seals. Naruto raised an eyebrow when he recognized them. Sasuke took a deep breath and brought two fingers up to his mouth. He exhaled into his fingers, a giant ass fireball came out flying at Naruto. Naruto cursed under his breath and ran threw the same hand seals. He pumped a lot of chakra into the jutsu and exhaled about the same size of a fireball.

The two jutsus collided and an explosion shook the ground of the training field. On the side lines, the rookie nine shielded their eyes from any debris that might have been caused from the explosion. When the smoke cleared from the explosion, Sasuke looked forward. The smoke cleared and he looked for Naruto.

Which the blonde haired boy was no where to be seen.

Sasuke looked left, nothing. Sasuke looked right, nothing. Sasuke looked behind him, nothing. His eyes widened as he looked up and saw, nothing.

A sudden flashback to his genin exam caused his eyes to widen and he jumped high into the air, just as Naruto's hands shot out from under ground to grab Sasuke's feet. The hands poofed into smoke and Naruto poofed back on top of the ground.

Naruto chuckled, "How did you know that was coming?" Naruto said laughing.

Sasuke chuckled, "Well I ran into something like that when I was taking my genin exam."

Naruto smiled, he was about to charge, when Kakashi appeared between the two of them. He gave them both an eye smile, "That was very good! Both of you. Sasuke, you did everything right, but Naruto just did everything better."

Sasuke scowled but nodded to Naruto. Naruto grinned, his mask covering his face, the only sign was the curving of eyes. Kakashi walked to two back to everyone else.

Sasuke was greeted by Ino and Sakura, both smiling at him. "You did really well, Sasuke-kun! He just got lucky!"

"Yeah! You'll definitely whoop his ass next time, Sasuke-kun!"

Sasuke grunted and walked by them. Naruto went to a tree and leaned against it. Kakashi stopped in front of the group and smiled.

"Anyone else wish to spar?"

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Sarutobi looked up when he heard the knock on his door, "Come in."

The door opened, and his assistant walked in. She gave a small bow then looked up at him. "Sir, you have your meeting with Suna's council in five minutes. You should be done in one hours time."

Sarutobi sighed, but nodded. He stood up and stretched, hearing the cracks and creaks in his old body. He grabbed his pipe, filled it with tobacco, lit it, and walked out. He closed and locked the door behind him.

Just outside of his window was another Sarutobi. This Sarutobi had an insane smirk on his face. He opened the window up and closed it when he entered. He walked over to the door, unlocked it and planted a scroll into the desk. He sat down in the chair and swiveled around a few times. He looked out the window that looked over the entire village. The intruder smirked again.

"Ah, Konoha, if only you ever understood."

A knock on the door was heard. Sarutobi smirked, "Perfect timing. Come in!"

The door opened, and Denkou entered. Denkou nodded to him and closed the door. He plopped down on one of the chairs in front of the desk. Denkou smirked at the old man.

"Saru-ji-san. You look like shit, as usual."

Sarutobi chuckled, "Denkou-kun. Unusually rude today, aren't we?"

Denkou shrugged. "I have my days. And a pretty fucking bad hangover. I'm just here to give my monthly report. Wanna hear?"

Sandaime nodded, "Oh yes, tell me."

Denkou nodded, "Well, Naruto has been acting really weird, but last night he was all better. I got him drunk for the first time ever in his life last night, thus the hangover. Skills are tad better, I haven't been so insane with his training since he became a genin. I've been more focused on getting him some friends, and team work. It's paying off it seems. Slowly but surely. And that's honestly everything."

Sarutobi nodded, "That's good, it's good that he is getting friends his age."

Denkou nodded, he looked up at the ceiling. "Yeah, that's what I was thinking."

Sarutobi didn't say anything for a little bit. After a while of silence, he opened a drawer and pulled out a blood seal scroll. Denkou raised an eyebrow.

"Denkou, I have a very important mission for you. You can consider it one of your 25 missions. Everything you need to know is in the scroll but its dire to Konoha that you complete this. There is a fortress near the land of the waves, that hold an old laboratory of Orichimaru. There are rumors that there is valuable information on his whereabouts and Akatsuki in there. We need this information at all costs. It has to be you to get the information too, because this is a timed mission. They haven't destroyed the fortress yet. And if we waste anymore time, they could get rid of all that information…"

Denkou bit his thumb and spread it on the blood seal. He opened it and looked at all the information. He nodded, and stood up. He looked at Sarutobi seriously. "You can count on me Saru-ji-san. When should I leave?"

Sarutobi looked at him, serious as well. "As soon as possible. If you have all the information on you right now, I would wish for you to leave right now."

Denkou nodded and left the room. Sarutobi leaned back in his chair and smirked. He stood up, stretched, hearing his bones and muscles crack and creak. He walked back over to the door, locked it, then walked over to the window. The intruder Sarutobi started to whistle as he opened the window, climbed out and then closed it.

He walked along the side of the rooftop until he got to a corner where no one could see him. Sarutobi started to morph into a completely, and younger, person.

Green short messy hair, and brown eyes replaced the grey hair and grey eyes of the Sandaime. Ashi was grinning crazily. He continued whistling, not seeming to mind that he was completely naked. He walked over to folded clothes in the corner and started to put them on.

After he was fully dressed, he looked up. He had the entire uniform of the ANBU on. Katana and everything. Ashi looked down below him and smirked. Below him on the streets was a group of ANBU trainees. They had the white masks, but they were only pure white.

Ashi smirked as he put on an identical white mask and wiggled his eyebrows. "Perfect timing."

He jumped down from the roof and landed very quietly behind the group of ANBU trainees. He stood up and started walking at the back of the group, as if he'd been there the entire time.

No one had noticed.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Naruto was walking home from the training with his teammates, a smile plastered on his face. Nothing could ruin his day. Naruto put his hands behind his head and walked towards the valley, not giving a damn in the whole world.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Denkou was racing in the woods. His ninja gear actually on his body. He had a serious look on his face. He had to get there. He never noticed the presence of another human being following him.

Denkou kept running, trying to keep a steady pace to there.

_-Hours Later-_

Denkou stopped running, out of breath. He looked at the fortress. There were a few guards at the top, but he figured most of them were inside, already attempting to get rid of all evidence. Denkou was about to proceed forward when he heard someone whisper.

"Hey Denkou-sensei!"

He whipped around, a lightning dagger formed in his hand as he grabbed the intruder and glared into his eyes as he was about to make the final stab into this throat. He stopped and blinked though when he found himself looking into ocean blue eyes and a masked face.

Fury rised up inside of him as he stared in Naruto's confused and slightly scared face. Denkou quit his technique and grabbed Naruto with both hands, and shook him.

"Why the fuck are you here?" He whispered furiously.

Naruto put his hands up, "I wanted a real fucking mission! Instead of all this bull shit that I've been doing."

Denkou snarled at Naruto, "This isn't a mission for you, you aren't ready for this mission. Go home. Now."

Naruto slapped his hands away and glared, just as hard at Denkou, "No. I'm your student. That makes us a team. You even said that yourself. And since I'm part of your team, then I can't let my teammate go running around doing missions by himself. What if you needed back up?"

Denkou pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head. "If I needed back up, Naruto, I wouldn't ask for a fucking genin. I'm just as strong if not stronger than the Yondaime. I doubt I would even need back up."

He looked back behind him and then back at Naruto. "I can't risk sending you back home, just incase they see you. I need you to stay here. Don't move, don't sneeze. Hell I hardly want you to breathe right now."

And with that Denkou moved towards the fortress, silent as night. He climbed up the wall. He snuck up behind the first guard, put a hand on his head and spun it all the way around. The snap of his neck was all that Denkou needed to hear to know that he was dead. He caught the body and gently placed it on the ground. He looked up at the second guard and raced over to do the same thing.

After he had done that, he checked to make sure that there wasn't anymore guards outside of the fortress. Confirming that there wasn't anymore he entered the door into depths unknown.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Naruto walked up to the entrance to his and Denkou's secret valley and preformed the necessary hand seals to open the door. After he finished doing the ritual, he walked inside, knowing that the entrance seals itself off again. Immediately after entering, Naruto knew something was wrong.

He looked around the valley. Signs of a battle definitely showed. Especially near the house. Naruto felt his heart beat quicken and he started sprinting towards the house, a feeling of complete and utter dread manifested itself in his stomach.

Naruto reached the house, and almost stepped on Shishiu as the small fox came sprinting out of the house. Naruto let out a sigh of relief to see that his fox was ok. But he ignored Shishiu for the time being and opened to door, poised to strike. He looked around and felt his mouth drop in shock.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Denkou let out a string of curses, as the entry way was booby trapped. He dropped to the ground and rolled out of the way of several devastating explosions. He looked up when he heard people shouting and running towards him.

He got up and formed a lightning sword. He lined up against the wall and right when the first person came around the corner he stabbed the lightning sword into his stomach. He saw another enemy ninja right in front of him, ready to stab Denkou.

At the last second Denkou dodged out of the way, and was about to punch his head with a lightning infused fist when a ball of fire flew by Denkou, covering the enemy ninja with flames. Denkou ignored the mans screams of pain and looked at where the ball of flames came from.

Naruto had his fist out, just like he would if he punched the air. Naruto smirked at him, "Saved your life."

Denkou glared at him, "I told you to wait out fucking side."

"Your welcome." Naruto spat at him. "Now lets get going, whatever you have to do, we definitely don't have time for us to be arguing this."

Denkou scowled, "Fine, but don't get in my way. And stay back."

Naruto nodded and followed Denkou deeper into the fortress. Denkou stopped, signaling for Naruto to stop also. Denkou took out a mirror and peeked around the corner using it. Four men were sitting around a table, looking through documents and commenting on them. Denkou put away the mirror.

He started to do hand seals. After he was done he gently put his hands on the ground. Two snake like rock figures formed up out of the ground. The started to slither towards the room. When they were both a decent distance away from the enemy shinobi, the opened their mouths and released gas.

After about a minute or two, the men started choking. Without another sound, they all fell over one at a time. Dead. Naruto was about to walk out into the open, but Denkou stopped him. Naruto gave him a confused look.

"We have to wait for the gas poison to disperse. It'll be gone soon."

Naruto gestured to the room of dead shinobi, "What was that?"

Denkou smirked, "An assassination jutsu. The gas poison doesn't smell and is virtually undetectable. After a few minutes, and after the job is done, the poison is nullified and the air is harmless again. Best part is, you can't detect the poison in the body of the person you killed. Its one of the best assassination techniques."

Naruto whistled, "Woah, that's so cool. Did you or the Yondaime invent it?"

Denkou smirked again, "Me, of course."

After saying that, Denkou nodded for Naruto to follow him into the room. Naruto, just in case, stopped breathing when he walked through the room, while Denkou just didn't give a shit. They continued into the next room. Denkou checked the whole room, no one was in it.

Denkou walked into the room, prepared for anything, but curious. He went to the work station that seemed to contain the most scrolls of information. He studied the whole room.

Naruto walked up to a tank, with some fish looking person inside of it. "Who would do this?"

Denkou didn't answer, but he looked at what Naruto was looking at. The being inside was dead. He turned back to the table and started to look through the documents. He scowled as he noticed something.

"These are all old documents…"

Naruto looked at a computer screen, he turned on the computer and the screen flashed the words

PASSWORD?

Naruto frowned, "Hey, sensei, come here, I think I found something."

Denkou turned towards Naruto and saw what he was looking at. He walked over to him and looked for the keyboard. He found it and stared at the screen…

He started muttering to himself. "Now what kind of password would Orichimaru use….?"

Naruto watched as Denkou started typing. The black haired man clicked enter, and the screen flashed.

INCORRECT PASSWORD

Denkou scowled. He tried a few more times, getting the same results, until one try the screen finally said.

WELCOME.

The computer started loading all of its information. Denkou smirked and shook his head.

"What a dumbass and very cliché password for him."

Naruto looked at Denkou, "What was the password?"

Denkou chuckled as the computer finished its loading, "Immortality."

Naruto looked confused, since he really didn't know much about the Sannin Orichimaru. He watched as the computer screen started filling up with file names, and information code sequences. Naruto blinked, it all looked so complicated.

Denkou frowned. He started typing, "Access classified file documents."

He clicked enter and watched as another window popped up. It contained more 1's and 0's and random letterings. Denkou started typing.

"Access previous classified file document entry."

Denkou leaned back as he watched the screen start to bring up dozens of different windows, each containing figures, words, and diagrams. Denkou felt his heart beat quicken as he took the mouse and clicked on one random file.

All of a sudden, all the files and documents turned into one big window. A naked woman was on the screen, she was getting fucked by a man. Moans and sexual noises filled the quiet air as Denkou quirked an eyebrow.

"Well that's certainly interesting."

Naruto felt his face flush up and he turned around, covering his ears. "Oh my god I can't believe I just saw that."

Denkou looked at Naruto, chuckling. "It's all apart of being an adult Naruto. You better get used to it. Trust me when I say that it is a beautiful thing about life. And its just so amazing."

Naruto ignored Denkou. Denkou turned back to the screen and was about to exit out of it. When he clicked the little X in the corner, another window popped up. A man with short green messy hair and brown eyes was staring right back at Denkou. Denkou felt his body tense up.

The man grinned, psychotically. "Ah. Ah. Ah. Now you really thought information would be left behind in this compound? Better think again."

Denkou felt his eyes widen and his instincts flared wildly. He whirled around and created two lightning swords. Naruto blinked, caught un prepared by the suddenness of Denkou's created technique.

Denkou shouted one thing out, "It's a trap!"

A whistling sound filled the air as Denkou felt several kunai and shuriken pierce threw his skin. He grabbed Naruto and dove to the ground. Naruto covered his head as tons of metal objects flew over their heads and implanted themselves into the wall behind them. The computer was shattered and completely broken. Denkou stood up once the onslaught was over. He looked up just in time to see a boot to his face.

Denkou flew backwards, feeling the blood leave his body from his now broken nose. He hit his head on the table and felt his world become suddenly dizzy. He looked up at his attacker and saw a black clad man go for Naruto.

Naruto froze up after seeing his sensei get taken down so easily. He watched in slow motion as the attacker came after him. He felt his reflexes kick in and his arm threw a fire punch at the man. The figure dodged the punch easily and drew an oversized kunai from behind him.

Denkou watched as his own world slowed down also. The oversized kunai was lunged straight at Naruto's heart, who the blonde haired boy was wide open to attack from his sloppy attempted fire punch. Denkou screamed as the kunai pierced straight threw Naruto's chest. Right where the heart should be.

The kunai came out the back of Naruto also. Without another thing, the man let go of the kunai and kicked Naruto into another table. The table broke and crashed down with Naruto, who was laying there at an awkward angle, unmoving and not breathing, blood slowly started to pool under Naruto.

Denkou felt tears form in his eyes as he stared, disbelieving at Naruto's body. Slowly, his vision started to turn red. He felt a burning, white fury explode threw his chest.

Denkou stood up, a roar of pure rage escaped his mouth. He charged the man who had killed Naruto and sent a lightning kick to one his knee caps. A loud pop, and a small explosion of blood came to Denkou's ears after he had successfully destroyed the mans use of his leg. Denkou heard the satisfactory scream of terror and pain. The man was about to fall over, before Denkou sent a lightning punch threw his stomach to keep him standing.

Denkou didn't stop there either. He sent a flurry of super charged lightning punches at the man, sending small explosions threw out the man's body and creating havoc in the room. After a little bit, Denkou watched the mans body fall to the ground, in a bloody heap of hamburger. There wasn't a single identifiable portion of the mans body. It was a mutilated mess, some parts were roasted from his lightning to a charcoal black. The smell of blood and burned human flesh filled the room as Denkou slowly started to control his emotions. He ignored the man's body and rushed over to Naruto's side.

He turned Naruto over, but sat down in a huge puddle of Naruto's blood. He felt the blood soak threw his pant legs, and his shoes. He laid Naruto down in his lap and felt tears flow from his eyes. Naruto's blood started to cover his lap, his chest, and his arms. He was drenched.

He pulled the kunai out from Naruto and started to perform the only medical jutsu he knew on Naruto's gapping hole in his chest. He sobbed as the wound refused to close, most likely due to the fact that Naruto was dead. In a last attempt to save Naruto's life, he slapped Naruto's face.

Denkou sobbed out, "Come on, kiddo, wake up. Wake the fuck up, Kyuubi will save you. You're not dead. Wake up, Naruto. Wake Up!"

Denkou cradled Naruto's head as he put a hand over Naruto's heart and sent one single jolt of electricity threw it. He watched as Naruto's chest cavity convulsed violently. Naruto's blue eyes stared lifelessly upwards. They weren't shining, just a dull blue.

Denkou felt his throat start to close, and he found that it was incredibly hard to breath. He punched Naruto's chest.

"Wake up dammit! Naruto! I can't loose you!"

Words became hard for him to say as he sent another jolt of electricity threw Naruto's body. Nothing happened again.

Denkou choked out one last sentence. "FUCK IT NARUTO! WAKE THE FUCK UP! I WOULDN'T BE ABLE TO HANDLE ANOTHER DEATH!"

He sent one last, much bigger, jolt of electricity through Naruto's body. Once again, nothing happened. Denkou choked out a scream of anguish as he hugged Naruto's head. He put his cheek into Naruto's bloodied hair. He sobbed, and cried. Naruto's lifeless body resting in Denkou's hands.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

_-A few hours earlier-_

Naruto opened the door, slowly. He immediately noticed the blood trail on the ground. He looked around the room, noticing the bodies that were littered on the ground. He pulled out a kunai as he checked each body for a pulse. He bent down and studied the ninja. Each shinobi looked like a chunin or a jonin from Konoha. The standard navy blue pants and elbow long sleeves. The dark green flak jacket.

Naruto frowned as he looked for any sign of what village they might be, although he had a very slight suspicion that they were from Konoha, he quickly disregarded these thoughts. Konoha doesn't attack it's own ninja. Although technically Denkou wasn't a ninja any longer, he was still a very valuable asset to Konoha.

Naruto continued to search for any clues of what village they were from. He looked up and noticed that there seemed to be more bodies. He looked up when he heard cackling and coughing.

Naruto went into the next room. He looked around and made sure it was clear before he went it. Naruto made a clone and had it search the rest of the house. The original blonde looked at the man leaning against the wall, blood pooled all around him. He had blood falling from his temples, and was almost pouring out of his mouth. He sat there chuckling and giggling.

Naruto snarled and picked the man up by his flak jacket. He activated his Onigan. The blood red pupils glared into the now scared man's brown.

"What. Happened."

The man coughed then grinned. "We completed our mission."

Naruto bared his fangs, feeling some of the Kyuubi's chakra leak into his system. "What mission."

The man chuckled, "To kill Denkou-sama."

Naruto felt his eyes widen. This scene will forever be in his head because of his Onigan. He shook the almost dead man, "Why? Who would want Denkou dead? Who sent you!"

Naruto could see the life force leaving his body as he said, "H-Hokage-sama sent me."

Naruto shook the man as he yelled, "Liar!"

The man reached up into his pocket and pulled out a scroll, which fell out of his hands. Naruto narrowed his eyes as he watched it roll away. He looked back at the man. Who weakly pointed at it.

"T-there's your pro….proof."

The man closed his eyes, and his head rolled back. Naruto stared at him, realizing this was the first time he questioned a dying man. He shook that thought out of his head, and gently placed him back on the ground.

He looked over at the scroll. Naruto looked at his hands, which were covered in blood. He scowled as he wiped them off on his pants. He picked up the scroll and tried to open it. He frowned when he saw some sort of seal on the opening of the scroll. He pushed a little bit of chakra into the seal and then tried to open it. Nothing happened.

Naruto looked at the dead man, then at all the blood around him. He looked back at the seal and then back at the man. Naruto dipped his pointer finger in the pool of blood around the man and let a drop land on the seal. Then he tried to open it.

Naruto felt the scroll open without any hitch. He grinned as he just discovered what a blood seal relatively looked like. He looked across the contents of the scroll. Which his eyes got progressively bigger.

**Mission: Kill Murasaki Denkou**

**Class: SS-class**

**Description: Attack Murasaki Denkou at his house, which is located at the indicated point on the map given to you. His house is accessed by a special jutsu, which the technique is written down on another scroll. Kill Murasaki Denkou, AT ALL COSTS. Bring all the utilities that you would bring on a very high class mission.**

**The best time to attack is around 5 O'clock, which is when he lets all guards down and takes a nap outside. He won't have any of his ninja tools with him, so he is at a slight disadvantage. **

**Signed,**

**The Sandaime Hokage**

**Sarutobi Hiruzen**

Naruto stared at the signature. Then he looked back at the top. It was the official seal of the Hokage. No one could forge that, it was special. This was an official document. No doubt about it.

Naruto felt shock take control over his body. How could he? How could the Sandaime assign a mission to kill Denkou? Those two were very good friends and even if they weren't Denkou had done more for that village than any other shinobi besides the actual Hokage.

"Hey Boss. Come here. I think you should see this."

Naruto looked up, disbelief still filling his veins. He rolled the scroll back up and put it in his pocket. He walked into where he heard his clones voice come from. Naruto came in and saw his clone standing over another body. He looked around the room.

This room by far was the worst for wear. Blood was almost everywhere. And the room was demolished. Naruto looked at five or six bodies on the floor. They were very mutilated. Naruto finally turned towards his clone and looked at whatever his clone was looking at.

Naruto felt his heart stop as he saw the body. He stared at the man. Black hair, matted down with blood. Purple eyes that used to be vibrant with life were now staring blankly ahead of him. His chapped blue lips were in a very small smile. Naruto knew that he had promised himself that he would never cry, but when he saw the body of his very beloved sensei. He lost all self control.

Naruto dropped to his knees, while his clone back away wiping tears out of his eyes. The original grabbed Denkou and released a scream. Naruto felt his eyes start to sting as hot tears streamed out of his eyes. He clutched Denkou's head, screaming and sobbing into it.

He buried his head into Denkou's hair, sobbing uncontrollably. "No! Sensei! You can't be dead, I can't have you leave my life! It only got good when you showed up…"

Naruto sat there for what felt like hours crying uncontrollably into Denkou's hair. He kept shaking his head no. He couldn't believe that he was gone. Naruto cried, until he found that he had no more tears left to cry. Naruto sat their clutching his sensei's head, almost afraid that if he let go, Denkou would disappear.

Naruto felt something tug on his sleeve and he looked over at Shishiu. The small fox had his sleeve in his mouth. Naruto tiredly pet his head. He felt exhausted already. It was too much to take. Shishiu whimpered and cuddled against Naruto's leg. He hiccupped.

Something fell to the floor, and Naruto looked on the other side of him. The mission scroll that the Sandaime had given was lying next to him. Naruto looked up at Denkou, then back down to the scroll. Naruto narrowed his eyes and stood up.

He wiped the tears in his eyes, and then looked back at his clone emotionlessly. He forgot that it was still there. Naruto dismissed him. He closed his eyes when he saw the memory of his clone watching him cry for a good hour or two. Naruto opened his eyes, righteous fury replaced his empathetic ones.

Naruto looked down at Shishiu, "Come on little buddy. We're leaving. After we bury Denkou."

Naruto picked up Denkou and walked outside. He gently placed his master on the ground and did a found a shovel. He angrily started to dig. He was going to leave this place. Right after Denkou got the proper burial that he deserved.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Denkou carried Naruto's body outside, and gently placed his body on the ground. He stared at Naruto's face, remorse plastered all over his face.

He looked at the ground. He couldn't be seen carrying Naruto's body all the way back to Konoha, it wouldn't be good. So he was left with the option of burying Naruto here. He did a few hand seals and slapped the ground with his palms. He watched as a perfect rectangle grave was formed in the ground. He looked back at Naruto.

He brushed Naruto's hair out of his now closed eyes. He felt another tear fall from his eyes. "I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. I wasn't good enough to protect anyone. Especially you. I'm so sorry."

Denkou picked up Naruto's body.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Naruto wiped the sweat off his head, as he looked at his crude, but workable grave. It would fit Denkou's body barely, but comfortably. Naruto stabbed the shovel into the ground. He looked over at Denkou, tears threatening to fall again.

He licked his thumb and gently wiped a little blood off of Denkou's face. He ruffled Denkou's hair, just like Denkou would always do to him. He stared at Denkou's face. Because of Rigamortis, he wasn't able to close Denkou's eyes. So he merely placed two ryo over his eyes.

Naruto closed his eyes in pain. He couldn't cry any more. He had cried all his tears for a long time. He took a shaky breath.

"I'm sorry, Denkou-sama. You shouldn't have ever had to deal with a monster like me. You were so strong too…..It was my fault. I know it. I'm so sorry….."

Naruto picked up Denkou's body, Shishiu whimpering on the sidelines.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Denkou did more hand seals and slammed his hand on the ground again. Watching Naruto's body be covered up with dirt and rock, to preserve it longer. Denkou watched Naruto's face until it was fully covered. He painfully swallowed.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Naruto grunted as he threw the last of the dirt on top of the small grave. He wiped his head again from the sweat. He looked at the pile of dirt and rock, to preserve it longer. Naruto took a breath and looked up towards the sky. Unsure of what to say for his last words.

-0-0-0-0-

Denkou put his hands behind his head, "Here lies Uzumaki Namikaze Naruto. He was great kid, one of the best human beings that will ever walk this planet, he was unworthy of a teacher as weak as me."

-0-0-0-0-

Naruto picked up Shishiu, petting her. "Here lies Murasaki Denkou. He was the strongest man I have ever known. Stronger than the 4th Hokage. I….I thought Denkou was the greatest teacher. He was unworthy of a monster like me for a student."

-0-0-0-

"Naruto was brave, fun, determined, and most of all….happy."

-0-0-0-

"Denkou was wise, brilliant, kind, and most of all….there for me."

-0-0-0-

"Naruto would always complain about having me as a teacher, but he knew that I cared for his development deeply."

-0-0-0-

"Denkou would always complain about having me as a student, but he knew that everything I did was to get him to be happy."

-0-0-0-

"Naruto was….like a son to me."

-0-0-0-

"Denkou was….like a father to me."

-0-0-0-

At seemingly the exact same time in history, both Naruto and Denkou said, "I will never forget what he had done for me….ever. That's a promise."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Naruto got up and sighed, he looked at Shishiu, and walked inside the house. He started to gather all his things. He wasn't sure exactly where to go, but he figured he would keep running or walking until he hit the very first Shinobi village he came across, and there he would start his shinobi life a new. He'd be damned if he stayed in a village that would betray their most loyal shinobi ever.

He sealed all the essentials into a scroll and packed those scrolls into a backpack. He opened his window and grabbed Shishiu. He jumped down and landed on the ground. He placed Shishiu in a harness that was comfortable, and connected to his backpack. He made the Harness for Shishiu if he had to go long distances with the fox, or if he wanted to run since Shishiu couldn't keep up with him yet.

He sprinted towards the exit of the valley. He did the seals and exited. He sent one last look into the beautiful place that he pretty much grew up in and sighed. He would miss that area so much. He turned his head, and instead of turning right to head into the Konoha village, he turned left. He was planning on running all the way around Konoha.

It would be a very long time before Naruto ever stood where he was standing, ever again.

Naruto started to run, blinded by his emotions. He sprinted, and he kept sprinting. He wasn't exactly sure where he was going quite yet. But he figured whatever happens, happens.

Naruto packed his soldier pills in a pocket that he could reach relatively easily, if he ever got low on energy. So Naruto was set to run for a very long time.

Naruto let his mind wonder as he continued to run. But immediately after he allowed his mind to wander, he began think about Denkou, so he stopped letting his mind wander. Naruto scowled as he realized that his will be a very long trip to wherever it is he's going.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

A black clad man walked around the valley that Denkou lives in. Ashi was grinning like a mad man. He did his hand seals, and 10 clones melted off his body. He turned towards them and grinned again.

"Looks like the plan went absolutely perfectly. Haha! Denkou is never going to take another mission from that old coot and hopefully, he won't even walk into the village ever again. And Naruto? Wow, he played his part perfectly. Leaving the village? Ha! I thought that I would have an intervention with that and give him that extra push to leave the village, but appa~rently….He loved Denkou waaaa~aay more than I would ever had hoped for!"

He was met with applause from his clones, a maniac smirk stretched across his face. "Thank yoou! Thank you." He gave short bows to them.

He then turned around, and smiled, "Well. You have about 10 hours to fix this place up to exactly the way it was before! There will absolutely no evidence that anything inside his house had ever happened. Or else."

He turned and started whistling as he walked away from the valley. The grin on his face, was ever present. How he was able to grin and whistle at the same time, is beyond even the almighty writer of this story…..

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_-Many hours later- _

Naruto dragged his feet, his breath completely ragged. He had Shishiu bundled up in his cloak in his arms, protecting the fox from the relentless sun. Naruto crossed into the desert, never taking a break once. He had plenty of supplies to make it across, but he realized that he would have to spare it. He never accounted for the sun to be so hot.

Long ago he had ripped the bottom of his pants off to turn them into shorts, and the had ripped the sleeved off his orange shirt, making it stop at his shoulders. He was controlling the wind around him very often to make it breezy.

Naruto's lips were chapped and bleeding. His face mask was too hot for him to wears so he took that off too and put it in his back pack. He had given a lot of his extra water to Shishiu already, to let the fox live. The fox was actually perfectly fine, if not a bit hungry and a little heated from being wrapped up in a black cloak.

Naruto saw a huge structure in front of him. But he ignored it. So far, he's already seen several oasis mirages and has learned to ignore and not get his hopes up from anything that might look different.

He felt dizziness wash over him, and he couldn't help but stagger forward. Naruto saw a person in front of him. Someone he's never seen before. The man ran up to him and was saying something, but for some reason he couldn't hear him. Then he noticed that there was three of the same guy.

Naruto tripped on his feet and fell to a knee, the man saying more things that he couldn't hear but grabbed onto his shoulder. Naruto looked at the man and noticed the only thing about him, A Suna headband around his head. Naruto smiled at him.

He held out his hands, "Take….take care of Shishiu."

He gave the man the bundle of clothe that was Shishiu, who immediately popped his head out of the cloak to see what all the commotion was about. The man looked up at Naruto, and yelled something behind him. Naruto couldn't understand.

Naruto grinned at him, using his foxy grin and fell face first into the sand. He weakly saw three more shadows appear behind the man in front of him. And with one last thought of '_How do shadows form?'_ Naruto's world went entirely black.

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A/N:

Woah. Important chapter much? So much happening. Haha But I just want to say to everyone! Hope you had a VERY Happy New Year's and I hope you partied hard, cuz this year! I definitely did not. Lol, um I think that's all I want to talk about too! Soooo um. Thanks!

Ja'Ne!

11-Tailed Demon Wolf


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